Agency Identification Of Over 700 Pages Of Confidential Documents At Donald Trump's House

Donald Trump's house Mar-a-lago in Florida, AS. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - The United States National Archives found more than 700 pages of classified documents at Donald Trump's Florida home, in addition to material seized this month by FBI agents, according to a newly disclosed May letter sent by the records agency to the former Republican president's attorney.

The vast amount of classified material in 15 boxes discovered in January by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), some marked as 'highly classified', provides more insight into what led to the FBI conducting an Aug. 8 court-sanctioned search of Trump's residence in Washington. Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

NARA is known to be responsible for preserving government records.

The May 10 letter was sent by Acting US Archives Debra Steidel Wall to Trump attorney Evan Corcoran. It was released on Monday evening by John Solomon, a conservative journalist who Trump authorized in June to access his presidential records. The National Archives uploaded a copy on its website on Tuesday.

"Among the materials in the box are more than 100 documents with classification marks, comprising more than 700 pages. Some belong to the highest level classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) material," Wall's letter said, referring to security protocols provided for most confidential state secrets, reported Reuters on August 24.

The letter contains additional information about Trump's handling of classified material, as well as his efforts to delay federal officials from reviewing the documents.

The letter pointed out that Trump's legal team repeatedly tried to stop the Archives from letting FBI and intelligence officials review the material, saying he needed more time to determine whether any records were covered by a doctrine called executive privilege, which allows a president to protect. some notes.

The administration of President Joe Biden, specifically the Office of Justice Department Legal Counsel, has determined that the material is not covered by executive privilege.

It found 'no precedent' for former presidents to protect records, of incumbent presidents exercising executive privilege when the material in question belongs to the federal government, according to the letter.

Even after Trump returned 15 boxes to the Archives, the Justice Department still suspected he had more classified material.

The August 8 search was part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally removed documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021, following a failed 2020 re-election 'attempt'. And whether he is trying to obstruct the government's investigation into the deletion of the document.

During the August 8 search, FBI agents found more than 20 additional boxes containing about 11 sets of records marked as confidential.

Trump's legal team waited two weeks before filing his lawsuit, which asks a federal judge to block the FBI from reviewing the seized material until a special master can be appointed.

A special master is an independent third party who is sometimes appointed in sensitive cases to review documents seized in searches, especially if the records can be protected by attorney-client privileges.