American justice seemed on Friday on the verge of making public court documents likely to lift the veil on the reasons for the unprecedented search carried out earlier this week at the home of former President Donald Trump.
The operation, which provoked the fury of his supporters, was carried out on Monday at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida by agents of the FBI, the American federal police.
It seems to have had the objective of recovering highly confidential documents taken away by the ex-president when he left the White House.
According to the Washington Post, some of the documents sought could even relate to the American nuclear arsenal, but Donald Trump denounced an “intoxication” early Friday on his social network Truth Social.
The very unusual willingness of the Department of Justice to make the search warrant public, announced Thursday by Minister Merrick Garland, was welcomed by Donald Trump.
“Not only will I not oppose the publication of the documents […] but I will go further by ENCOURAGING their immediate publication, ”wrote Thursday evening the Republican billionaire, who had nevertheless refrained from making public the copy of the mandate which he had received.
“Not lightly”
Donald Trump’s lawyers have until 3 p.m. to respond to the proposal of Merrick Garland, who assured Thursday, during an exceptional press conference, to have “personally approved” the search.
The Minister of Justice also denounced, during his brief televised address, the “unfounded attacks” coming from the Republicans against his ministry and against the FBI.
“The ministry does not take this kind of decision lightly,” he said, adding that the case was of “important public interest”, three months before the mid-term legislative elections.
In asking for the confidentiality of the warrant to be lifted, the Department of Justice cited, without contradicting them, the declarations of representatives of Donald Trump indicating that the FBI was looking for archival documents of the White House, possibly classified defense secret .
Monday’s search was the first ever to target a former US president.
Outraged, Donald Trump told Truth Social on Monday that his lawyers were cooperating “fully” with the authorities when “suddenly and without warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 a.m., by a VERY large number of officers”.
He complained in particular that FBI agents “searched the closets of First Lady” Melania Trump.
On Wednesday, he even suggested that the federal police may have “placed” false evidence against him during this operation.
Block
Republican sympathizers, known for their support for law enforcement, blasted the FBI’s intervention, so much so that an association of agents denounced calls “unacceptable […] to violence against the police”
On Thursday, a gunman who tried to enter FBI offices in Ohio (northern United States) was killed by law enforcement after a long confrontation.
After the search, the Republican tenors had united with their former president, who retains a strong hold on the conservative party and plans to be a presidential candidate again in 2024.
His former Vice President Mike Pence, yet a potential rival in two years, expressed his “deep concern” after the police operation.
The ex-real estate magnate, at the heart of legal news in the United States, was also subjected to a hearing under oath on Wednesday against the Attorney General of New York.
He then continued to invoke, for four hours and more than 440 times according to the American press, his right not to answer questions under the 5th Amendment of the Constitution.
Letitia James, the highest magistrate in the state of New York, has been investigating since 2019 on suspicion of financial and tax fraud within the family group Trump Organization.