Donald Trump has been informed by federal justice that he was personally targeted in the investigation into the White House archives, a new ordeal for the former American president who hopes to win a new mandate in 2024.
According to several American media including CNN and the New York Times, federal prosecutors have informed Donald Trump’s lawyers that the investigation is no longer limited to those close to the former president, but also targets him personally.
He is accused of having kept whole boxes of documents, including some classified “secret defense”, after his departure from Washington in 2021 and of having refused to return them, in violation of federal laws.
US media do not say when the former president was briefed, but his lawyers met with Justice Department officials on Monday, including Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is tasked with independently overseeing the investigation.
Wednesday’s news suggests there will be an indictment, an expert said. “If the prosecution tells you that you are under investigation, it means that they expect to charge you,” former prosecutor Renato Mariotti told MSNBC. “When I was a prosecutor, when I told someone he was concerned, that was what I meant.”
Donald Trump, who is currently well ahead of the other candidates for the Republican nomination, has always defended himself from any embezzlement and presents himself as the victim of “political persecution”.
“How could the Ministry of Justice indict me when I did nothing,” he wrote on the Truth Social network on Monday, when his lawyers were received by officials from this ministry.
In the United States, a 1978 law obliges all American presidents to transmit all their letters, emails and other working documents to the National Archives.
Another law, on espionage, prohibits anyone from keeping documents classified as confidential in unauthorized and unsecured places.
Leaving the presidency to settle in the luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence, Donald Trump nevertheless took entire boxes of files.
In January 2022, after several reminders, he agreed to return 15 boxes, containing more than 200 classified documents.
In a letter, his lawyers then assured that there were no others.
After examination, the federal police, however, estimated that he had not returned everything and that he still kept a lot of it in his Palm Beach club.
FBI agents went there on August 8, and seized around 30 other boxes, containing 11,000 documents, some of which were very sensitive on Iran or China.
Strongly denouncing a media operation, his lawyers strongly criticized the FBI for the publication, according to them unnecessary, of a photo showing seized documents stamped with the words “Top Secret”, scattered on a carpet with a floral pattern.
To silence accusations of conspiracy, Justice Minister Merrick Garland had appointed Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to oversee the investigation, as well as another into Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol assault.
Another special prosecutor is investigating in parallel classified documents found earlier this year in a former office and at the home of Democratic President Joe Biden by his lawyers.
These embarrassing finds, along with others from ex-Vice President Mike Pence, allowed Donald Trump to downplay his conduct, even though Joe Biden has always cooperated with the judiciary, voluntarily returning the documents, in much smaller number.
The Republican tribune also used his rival’s discoveries to rally his supporters who, each time justice strikes him, close ranks around him.
This was particularly the case in April, when the justice of the State of New York indicted him for falsification of accounting documents related to the payment of 130,000 dollars to the actress of porn movies Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, in exchange for his silence on a supposed affair.
It was the first time in American history that a former president faced criminal charges.
A Georgia state prosecutor, who has been investigating Republican pressure for months to try to change the 2020 presidential election, is due to announce the outcome of her investigations by September.
08/06/2023 10:53:25 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
