US recovers 100 classified documents Trump took

The US National Archives agency has recovered more than 100 classified-marked documents, for a total of more than 700 pages, from some of the first 15 boxes collected this year from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to reports. emerges from recently released correspondence between the government and the former president’s legal team.

The figures give an idea of ​​the volume of secret documents that the government recovered from Trump’s Florida mansion months ago, before the FBI’s authorized search on August 8, when it removed another 11 boxes of classified documents.

They further reveal that the FBI is investigating the possible illegal retention of documents, as well as a possible obstruction of justice.

The figures are included in a letter dated May 10 in which archivist Debra Steidel Wall notifies a Trump attorney, Evan Corcoran, that the administration does not recognize Trump’s claim that he has executive privilege over the documents.

Weeks earlier, Corcoran had asked for more time to review the materials to determine if anything there was subject to executive privilege and therefore exempt from release, according to the letter.

The letter was posted Tuesday on the agency’s website. It had been published on Monday night by John Solomon, a right-wing journalist allied with Trump and who in June was appointed by the former president to represent him before the National Archives.

The letter from the archivist states that the Department of Justice “found no precedent for a claim of executive privilege by a former president against a sitting president to prevent the latter” from obtaining from the Archives presidential documents that belong to the federal government and that are needed for current government functions.

Therefore, the letter adds, the claims of executive privilege are rejected and the FBI will be given access to the documents within days.

The National Archives had asked the Justice Department to investigate, saying it had found classified materials among 15 boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago that it said were meant to be returned by Trump at the end of his term.

In the letter, the archivist Wall writes that documents with the seal of top secret were found in the boxes, as well as information about special programs.

It says that in the boxes there were more than 100 documents with the seal of secret material “for a total of more than 700 pages” and cites a different correspondence between the National Security Division of the Department of Justice according to which “access to the materials it is necessary not only for purposes of the criminal investigation”, but also to “assess the potential harm” of the way the documents were transported and stored.

Corcoran has not immediately responded to messages seeking comment.

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