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AT MAR-A-LAGO FOR A YEAR
TRUMP HAD HUMAN, SIGNALS, AND FISA INTELLIGENCE IN AN INSECURE ROOM AT MAR-A-LAGO FOR A YEAR
August 26, 2022/49 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, Leak Investigations /by emptywheel
Here’s the affidavit used to search the home and resort of the 45th President of the United States for classified documents he refused to return. My live tweet is here. I’ll do running updates in this thread. Here’s my earlier post on what the affidavit would include which accurately predicated a great deal of what was in here.
THE INVESTIGATION
The affidavit spends three paragraphs describing how, after NARA made a referral on February 9, 2022, the FBI opened an investigation to learn:
How classified documents were removed from the White House
Whether the storage facilities at Mar-a-Lago were suitable for storing classified materials
Whether there were anymore classified documents at Mar-a-Lago or elsewhere
Who had removed and retained the documents in unauthorized spaces
In a probable cause paragraph, it explains that there were 15 boxes with classified information at Mar-a-Lago and there was probable cause to believe there were more.
There’s a redacted paragraph that may describe the basis for suspecting obstruction. A later sentence in the probable cause paragraph describes that there likely will be evidence of obstruction at MAL.
The affidavit explains that this is an investigation into (among other things) 18 USC 793e — which I was among the first people to predict. This means that DOJ maintains that Trump was not authorized to have these documents.
STATUTORY AUTHORITIES
As I predicted, there is a series of paragraphs that lay out the statutory authorities implicated. This tells us how sensitive the documents in question are.
It does not list the Atomic Energy Act.
It does have paragraphs defining:
18 USC 793(e), the Espionage Act
EO 13526, the Executive Order governing classified information
Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret classifications
Secure Compartmented Information
Special Intelligence, which is SIGINT
HCS, which refers to clandestine human spying
FISA
NOFORN, material not permissible to share with foreign governments
Originator Controlled, meaning whoever created controls it
Need to know
32 CFR Parts 2001 and 2003 which describes the Storage requirements for classified information
18 USC 1519, obstruction
18 USC 2071, willfully removing information
44 USC 2201, the Presidential Records Act
44 USC 3301(a), the Federal Records Act
NARA REFERRAL
Two paragraphs describe the NARA referral.
First, it describes the February 9, 2022 message to DOJ describing how Trump had “classified records [that were] unfoldered,” meaning their protective cover sheets were gone, “intermixed with other records, and otherwise unproperly [sic] identified.
Former Watergate prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega described that this sounds like an old white collar crime technique.
There’s also a description, first, of the notice NARA gave to Carolyn Maloney as the Chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Trump’s response. It also included Trump’s statement in response falsely claiming he was raided
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