The prosecutor on Trump: “The laws that protect Defense information must be respected”

Trump faces 37 charges in connection with the hundreds of classified official documents he kept in his possession after leaving the White House.

As revealed in the 49 page federal indictmentthe charges include concealing information, concealing documents, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury.

US authorities have found More than 300 classified documents at Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

The special prosecutor of the Department of Justice handling the case, Jacck Smith, assured that the laws that protect national defense information are essential and must be complied with.

“We have a set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone. Apply those laws and collect facts. That’s what determines the outcome of an investigation. No more, no less.”

Donald Trump, who became the first former president in US history to face federal charges, continues to deny any wrongdoing.

The National Archives of the United States highlighted former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) this Friday that he was required to return official documents upon leaving the White House, and that photocopies also fall under that category.

That institution thus once again denied the former president, who, after being accused of taking classified documents to his Florida mansion when he left power, alleged this Friday that he did not commit any crime and that he was authorized to do so by virtue of a law on presidential records.

The National Archives recalled that this law requires that all documents originated during a Presidency or Vice Presidency must be delivered at the end of the term.

This regulation requires presidents to separate presidential documents from personal ones before leaving office, and leaves the custody and subsequent conservation of official papers in the hands of the Archives.

There is no specific clause that allows former presidents to take these documents with them for a certain period of time, and if after having left the White House they realize that they are keeping official documents among their personal ones, they must notify them so that the Archives can take care of them.

The Archives recalled that before Trump left the White House, the now former Republican president did not convey any intention to donate documents to the Presidential Library or create one in his name, so there is no reason for his Florida mansion to be considered a temporary installation of the same.

The statement specifies that photocopies can also be considered presidential documents “depending on how they were used or maintained in the White House.”

The Presidential Records Act, passed in 1978, was first applied under Republican President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989).

The National Archives stressed that its staff went to the White House to help move the documents, before Trump handed over to Democrat Joe Biden.

Presidential records include documents created or received by the president or his close team or by someone in his executive office whose function is to advise the president in his activities.

According to the indictment, released this Friday, Trump would have taken hundreds of classified documents, including nuclear secrets, which he stored in various parts of his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, mansion, including a bedroom, a ballroom, a bathroom, and a shower.

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