Republicans closed ranks behind Trump after his Mar-a-Lago home was searched. They sow doubts about whether the judiciary’s actions were justified or not.
US Republicans sow doubts about the work of the judiciary after the search for the property of former President Donald Trump. “Well, we have a number of concerns, one of which is whether or not the attack itself was justified,” Representative Mike Turner, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on television Sunday. Arkansa’s Republican governor Asa Hutchinson said the “establishment” is behind Trump.
Meanwhile, the former president accused the FBI of the Federal Police of having taken documents that are subject to attorney-client confidentiality. Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social, a platform he co-founded, that federal law enforcement “knowingly” took material from his property in Mar-a-Lago that they should not have taken.
The FBI also “stole” their passports. “Wow! During the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago operation, they stole my three passports (one of them expired) along with everything else,” Trump wrote Monday on the social networking site Truth Social, which he co-founded.
“This is an attack on a political adversary on a level our country has never seen before. Third World!” It is still unclear why Trump only spoke a week after his property search in the US state of Florida.
The former president asked the FBI to return the documents immediately. According to the 76-year-old, these are also confidential documents between the client and the legal advisor. Trump has repeatedly attacked the judiciary and federal police after the search on Monday.
Former Vice Pence also supported Trump
Several Republicans supported him — including his former vice president Mike Pence, who recently distanced himself from Trump. Republican Representative Turner said the FBI’s list of seized documents says nothing about the nature of the documents themselves. “We got this list from the FBI, but we’re not sure if it’s classified material or not,” Turner told CNN. The receipt shows that the material has been marked as secret. But that doesn’t mean it’s really secret at the moment. He gave no evidence for this. When asked if he was taking classified material home with him, he said, “No.”
According to the FBI list, agents last Monday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate found, among other things, sets of documents classified as “Top Secret/SCI”, which are top secret and can only be visas in special government institutions. Four of the confiscated sets of documents were classified as “Top Secret”, three more as “Secret” and the remaining three as “Confidential”. The search warrant lists three criminal offenses as a possible basis for any seizure – including collecting, transmitting or losing defense information. This falls under the US Espionage Act.
“One might ask whether this was the right move and whether there are no less intrusive means to achieve the same end,” said Governor Hutchinson. He asked the Justice Department to release more information. “The bigger picture is a crisis of legitimacy in this country. Liberals or progressives believe that Donald Trump is not a legitimate person, was not a legitimate candidate and was not a legitimate president,” former Republican Secretary William Bennett told Fox News. . Senator Ted Cruz said Attorney General Merrick Garland had done “enormous damage” to the FBI’s credibility.
Search followed by security cameras
The Washington Post reported that Trump was already sitting with his lawyers in New York during Monday’s search to discuss another case. However, the session was interrupted by a phone call informing the former president of what was happening in Florida, the paper quoted Trump’s attorney Ron Fischetti as saying. Trump and his team followed the search for security cameras.
Meanwhile, the White House re-emphasized that it declined to comment on the investigation. President Joe Biden has made it clear in the past that the Justice Department is completely independent in investigating law enforcement issues, Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on US television. “This is a law enforcement issue and the Department of Justice will act as it sees fit.”
Last year, officials at the National Archives discovered that Trump had taken a series of documents and other government materials when he left the White House at the end of his term in January 2021. Under the law, that material should have been turned over to the White House. National Archive. Trump finally turned over several documents to the agency earlier this year. However, officials suspected that Trump or his team were still withholding important documents, according to US media.
(APA)