As early as June, the FBI is demanding the return of encrypted documents from Donald Trump's estate. However, these are only secured during a raid in August. Investigators believe Trump employees previously intentionally hid the files to "hinder" government investigations.
In the case of the secret documents stored in Donald Trump's luxury estate Mar-a-Lago, the investigators substantiate their accusation of obstruction of justice. The responsible US prosecutors submitted a 54-page paper to a Florida court on Tuesday (local time) in which they present their evidence. Accordingly, the encrypted files were probably deliberately hidden from the FBI when the US federal police first visited the villa in June to recover the documents.
The ex-president kept the documents at his residence after he left the White House in January 2021. Trump employees incorrectly stated that all government documents had been returned. In addition, Trump's lawyers had "expressly forbidden" at the time to open or look at boxes stowed in a storage room. There is evidence "that government records were likely hidden and removed from the storeroom and that efforts were likely made to obstruct the government investigation."
It is the first time that the public prosecutor's office has made such allegations publicly. An American law requires that a president's letters, memos, e-mails, faxes, and other written correspondence be archived for posterity. The Justice Department said it had tried several times to get all the documents back. Finally, on August 8, Mar-a-Lago was searched and the FBI seized dozens of boxes. Some of the documents seized were marked with the note of the strictest secrecy.
Trump has argued variously why he kept the material to himself. So far, he has not provided a reason why he did not return all the documents. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in a West Palm Beach court over Trump's request that the review of the documents confiscated in the raid be given to a specially commissioned neutral person - and not to government investigators.
Trump has criticized the raid as further evidence of alleged attempts to politically eliminate him. The 76-year-old has repeatedly fueled speculation that he could run again in the 2024 presidential election.
