Former US President Donald Trump may be “in trouble” with claims that some documents collected at his mansion by the FBI may be subject to executive privilege because the statements could be interpreted as confessions about who had illegally obtained documents. .
Trump is on trial for violating the espionage, obstruction of justice and document destruction laws, which, if convicted, can result in fines, prison terms or a ban from holding political office.
The FBI seized 11 sets of classified Mar-a-Lago documents, some classified not only as top secret, but as “classified classified information,” a special category designed to protect the nation’s most sensitive secrets. “Exceptionally serious” harm to US interests, write US media.
A petition filed Monday by the former president’s attorneys seeking the appointment of a “special counsel” to separate and determine material the Justice Department can review due to privilege issues indicates the documents are official documents. and should have been handed over to the National Archives at the end of his tenure.
Now, that motion appears to acknowledge that Trump may have violated one of the criminal statutes listed by the FBI in connection with the illegal disposal of government documents at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, 18 USC 2071.
“If Trump admits he has documents that have any claim to executive privilege, they belong, by definition, to the presidential records and the National Archives,” said Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and former associate dean at Yale. Law School as quoted by the Guardian. “Therefore, it is not clear whether executive privilege is appropriate for the particular offense for which the former president is being tried. However, in the process, he basically admits that he has these documents and that is what the government is trying to clarify,” Rangappa said.
The reports from English media came the same day the National Archives revealed it had recovered more than 100 documents marked classified from an initial batch of 15 boxes taken from former President Trump’s Florida home in January.
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