“Probably” hidden documents – US Department of Justice justifies raid on Trump

A good three weeks after the search of ex-President Donald Trump's private property, the US Department of Justice has given detailed reasons for the raid. Trump "probably" "hid" secret documents in his luxury estate Mar-a-Lago in the state of Florida to hinder investigations by the FBI into possible violations of legal requirements for the storage of secret documents, the ministry said in a Tuesday (local time) filed court document.

Trump's lawyers assured in June that all documents from the White House were stowed in a storage room. However, there is evidence that documents were taken from there, it said.

Prior to the search, the FBI had evidence that "classified documents" were being held at Mar-a-Lago, the ministry said in the court document. The government has also come to the conclusion that government documents "were likely to have been hidden and removed and that efforts were likely to have been made to obstruct the government's investigation".

It was also said that FBI and Justice Department officials were in Mar-a-Lago for the documents in early June. The department said Trump's attorneys at the time said there were "no other records stored in any private offices or anywhere else on the property" other than the named warehouse. All available boxes were also searched.

However, according to the Justice Department, during a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in early August, FBI investigators found confidential documents not only in the storage room but also in Trump's office, including three classified documents that were found in office drawers rather than in boxes had been.

Video footage of the property was also seized and "evidence found that government documents were likely hidden and removed from storage and that efforts were likely made to obstruct government investigations." The ministry did not name anyone who might have taken the boxes with the secret documents away.

The statement was also accompanied by a photo showing the cover sheets of the documents classified as confidential. Some of them say "TOP SECRET/SCI" (top secret sensitive classified information). The sheets lie on a rug in Mar-a-Lago next to a box containing framed pictures, including the cover of an issue of Time magazine.

The Justice Department first revealed reasons for the raid on Trump on Friday. It released the affidavit the FBI used to request the search warrant. However, large parts of the document were blacked out and therefore illegible, a circumstance that many supporters of the ex-president called on social media as an occasion for jokes, memes and photomontages.

The ex-president is suspected of violating an espionage law. It contains strict guidelines for the retention of national security documents. US Presidents are required to hand over all official documents, including emails and letters, to the National Archives upon leaving office. During a search of Trump's home, FBI officials seized numerous documents - including those classified as "top secret".

The raid on Trump had led to fierce political disputes in the United States. Trump repeatedly described the search of his villa as politically motivated and spoke of a "witch hunt". He accuses President Joe Biden's Democrats of using the judiciary to prevent him from running for president again in 2024.

Other opposition Republican politicians have also sharply criticized the FBI and the judiciary, and right-wing circles have threatened the FBI with violence. A few days after the raid, a gunman tried to break into an FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Biden defended the FBI from the attacks on Tuesday. The attacks on the FBI are "disgusting," the president said in a speech. There is no place in the US for such attacks, which endanger the lives of officials.