Trump Mar-a-Lago home searched over ‘likely’ efforts to hide files, DoJ says – Newstrends
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Trump Mar-a-Lago home searched over ‘likely’ efforts to hide files, DoJ says

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Photo: AP

The FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after it obtained evidence there was probably an effort to conceal classified documents in defiance of a grand jury subpoena and despite Trump’s lawyers suggesting otherwise, the Department of Justice said in a court filing late on Tuesday night.

The filing, opposing Trump’s request for an independent review of materials seized, amounted to the most detailed picture of potential obstruction of justice yet outlined by the DoJ.

“Efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the filing alleged.

Among new revelations in the 36-page filing were that agents recovered three classified documents from desks in Trump’s office and additional classified files from a storage room, contrary to what Trump’s lawyers indicated.

The DoJ suggested the effort to conceal documents started on 3 June, as Trump’s representatives produced a single legal envelope, double-taped, in response to a subpoena for materials removed from the White House.

The file was given to Jay Bratt, the chief DoJ counter-intelligence official, by a Trump lawyer and his records custodian, who signed a letter certifying a “diligent search” had been conducted and all documents responsive to the subpoena were being returned.

The lawyer also told Bratt all records in the envelope had come from one storage room, that there were no other records elsewhere at Mar-a-Lago, and that all boxes brought from the White House had been searched, the DoJ said.

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A copy of the letter reproduced in the filing redacted the custodian’s name. Two sources familiar with the matter identified the custodian as Christina Bobb, a member of Trump’s legal team.

According to the filing, the FBI uncovered evidence through multiple sources that classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago in defiance of the subpoena, and that other records were “likely” removed from the storage room and concealed.

The DoJ said the evidence – details of which were redacted in an affidavit unsealed last week – allowed it to obtain a warrant to enter Mar-a-Lago, where FBI agents found more classified documents in Trump’s office.

“The government seized 33 items of evidence, mostly boxes,” the filing said. “Three classified documents that were not located in boxes, but rather were located in the desks in the ‘45 Office’ were also seized.”

In an exhibit resembling how the justice department would show the results of a drug bust, the filing included a photo of retrieved documents emblazoned with classification markings including “top secret” and “secret” designations.

The DoJ said the documents collected most recently included “sensitive compartmented information”, while other documents were so sensitive that counterintelligence agents reviewing them needed additional security clearances.

The filing said: “That the FBI recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former president’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform, calls into serious question the representations made in the 3 June certification.”

Trump responded on Wednesday with a post on his social media platform, alleging without evidence that the photo of documents was staged and that the documents were supposedly declassified.

“Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see,” Trump said. “Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!”

Trump and allies have insisted he issued some sort of a standing order when he was president that any materials he took to the White House residence were declassified. He has produced no paperwork that might confirm that claim.

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In a subsequent post, Trump wrote: “Whatever happened to NUCLEAR, a word that was leaked early on by the FBI/DOJ to the Fake News Media!” – a reference to a news report that the FBI sought materials relating to nuclear weapons.

The justice department appears to have asked Trump representatives in the June subpoena to return documents marked as “S/FRD”, short for “Secret/Formerly Restricted Data”, a control relating to nuclear weapons information designated by the Atomic Energy Act.

Trump has never addressed the central question of why he had classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, why they were in his private office, and why the documents were not surrendered when he was subpoenaed in June.

On Wednesday morning, Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who is vice-chair of the House January 6 committee and a leading Trump critic, tweeted the picture of documents on the floor at Mar-a-Lago and condemned “yet more indefensible conduct by Donald Trump”.

Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House intelligence committee, said: “The government’s brief is devastating. The legal arguments are compelling, but what is most striking are the facts outlining how the former president and his team knowingly put our national security at risk.”

In the DoJ filing, after painting an extraordinary portrait of the hurdles the DoJ had to overcome to recover documents that belong to the government, prosecutors argued Trump had no basis to seek the appointment of a so-called special master to review the files.

The request fails, the filing argued, because Trump is attempting to use the potential for executive privilege to withhold documents from the executive branch – which the supreme court decided in Nixon v GSA did not hold.

The DoJ added that even if Trump could successfully assert executive privilege, it would not apply because the documents marked classified were seized as part of a criminal investigation into the handling of the documents themselves.

Trump is expected to press on with his request for a special master and to obtain a more detailed list of materials taken, a source close to his legal team said, also disputing that the DoJ filing raised the likelihood of an obstruction charge.

On Tuesday morning, Trump added a third lawyer, the former Florida solicitor general Christopher Kise, to his legal team, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The Guardian
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Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

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3 days ago

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December 19, 2024

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Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

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Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

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Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

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3 days ago

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December 19, 2024

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Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port… and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

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Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.

 

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

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Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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3 days ago

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December 19, 2024

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A Palestinian boy looks as others inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

CAIRO: The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.

In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesman.

Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of “ethnic cleansing” to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.

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Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.

Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the Central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.

CEASEFIRE GAINS MOMENTUM

The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.

In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other knowledgeable sources said. The CIA declined to comment.

Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.

There have been repeated rounds of talks over the past year, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on retaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops pulled out.

The war in Gaza, triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 250 abducted as hostages, has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and left Israel isolated internationally.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

 

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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