Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Inset: Donald Trump.Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty. Inset: Zach Gibson - Pool/Getty
The official Twitter account of theRepublicans on the House Committee on the Judiciary, which is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, made light of the photo, writing, “That TIME Magazine cover was huge threat to national security,” along with the emoji.
Of course, the gold-framed TIME Magazine pictured in the edge of the frame — the cover of which shows Trump and other world leaders — was not the subject of the FBI search. Instead, the FBI was searching for classified documents, many of which can clearly be seen in the same photo (and were seemingly being stored in the same area as the old framed magazines).
And while the House Judiciary GOP account joked about the magazine being a “huge threat to national security,” the affidavit used to secure the search warrant for Trump’s home shows that the government did indeed have security concerns.
The Mar-a-Lago search stems from conversations between Trump’s representatives and the National Archives, which reached out to the former president’s team throughout 2021 about what appeared to be missing Presidential records.
Trump’s team transferred 15 boxes of records to the archives in January 2022 — but agents believed there were more documents still at Mar-a-Lago, and subpoenaed security footage from the resort. Then, they got a search warrant and returned in August, ultimately taking several more classified documents, including those seen in the latest photo.
The 38-page affidavit used to secure the warrantlays out the casefor why there was probable cause “to believe that evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed” would be found on the Mar-a-Lago premises.
The affidavit says that previous documents handed over from Mar-a-Lago back in January “appear to contain National Defense Information” and information gleaned from “clandestine human sources.” It also argued that agents had reason to believe they would find more National Defense Information if they obtained permission to search Mar-a-Lago themselves, and that they anticipated finding evidence of obstruction of justice.
The inventory of items taken in August shows agents removed 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were marked as top secret, which theWall Street Journalnotes should only be available in special government facilities.
Among the many boxes of items taken were binders of photos, an unspecified handwritten note and the executive grant of clemency forformer Trump aide Roger Stone. The three-page list of items also showed that information about the President of France was collected.
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source: people.com
