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Focus writes:


The FBI launched an investigation into former US President Donald Trump on Friday. The suspicion: violation of the Espionage Act. A published document shows how deep Trump could be in the mess.

Four times the highest secrecy level "Top Secret", three times "secret", three times "confidential" - and once even "Top Secret/SCI". During the raid on Donald Trump's Florida mansion, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) secured several sets of classified documents.

Top Secret/SCI" refers to top-secret papers that may only be viewed in special government facilities.

Especially documents with the classification "Top Secret/SCI" would usually be kept in specially made facilities, as US military expert Mark Hertling explains. And not in a mansion in Florida.

Now the FBI is investigating Trump. The U.S. magazine "Politico" has published on Saturday night the released search warrant and the list of seized items. On seven pages there is the legitimacy for the raid on the Trump estate and a list of all the documents taken from the house.

It is this seven-page document that shows Trump's mess. It's clear from the list that authorities carried several boxes and sets of top-secret documents out of the House.

Moreover, as the search warrant shows, the FBI was investigating the removal or destruction of records, obstruction of justice and violation of the Espionage Act. This can include offenses beyond spying, such as refusing to return national security documents when requested. A conviction under these laws can result in imprisonment or a fine.

Especially the latter offense does not seem unrealistic in this case. For: at the beginning of the year, it had become known that the U.S. National Archives suspected several boxes with confidential material in Mar-a-Lago. Trump finally handed over numerous documents to the authority in January.

After that, according to coinciding U.S. media reports, there was another exchange between investigators and Trump's lawyers. Officials had suspected that Trump or his team were continuing to withhold important documents.

So now the raid and the discovery of several sets of classified documents. Was Trump deliberately withholding them? Or did he even do worse with them?
Lawyer: Trump released all documents he took home with him

The Trump team is now defending itself against the accusations. On the grounds that Trump had always previously released documents that he had taken with him from the White House to Florida. Thus, these would no longer fall under a secrecy level. The U.S. president is in principle empowered to do so. But: Trump did so without references and without marking the release.

Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa shares on Twitter her incomprehension of the Trump defense. "So Trump telepathically releases hundreds of documents upon his departure. And then what? Biden can also immediately telepathically reclassify them as classified. See how silly that gets? Markings would mean nothing. No one would know how to store things. This is idiotic" , she writes in a lengthy post.

And she asks the crucial question. Why should Trump have kept so many secret documents with him without voluntarily handing them over? "What was the justification? What could be the justification for releasing our nation's top defense secrets?" These are the questions the FBI is now trying to answer in its investigation.