Since Donald Trump left office in January 2021, he has been faced with a range of criminal and civil investigations as officials probe everything from his alleged mishandling of classified documents to his involvement in the Jan. 6 assault on our Nation’s Capital.
On Aug. 8, the FBI carried out an unprecedented lawful search warrant on the former President’s Mar-a-Lago beach front resort in Palm Springs Florida he calls home, to find classified documents believed to be taken by Trump from the White House when he left office.
On Aug. 26, the Justice Department released a highly redacted copy of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant.
The affidavit states the federal government has launched a criminal investigation into the “improper removal and storage of classified information in an unauthorized space, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of recruitment records” according to Time Magazine.
As stated in the affidavit the investigation began as a result of a tip from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in February informing the Justice Department that they had received 15 boxes of records on Jan. 18 from Trump’s office in Mar-a-Lago. The boxes that were reported by the NARA to contain “highly classified documents” per the affidavit.
The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation to determine how such documents were removed from the White House and ended up in storage at Mara-a-Lago.
The affidavit also stated that the Justice Department had “probable cause to believe” that additional classified documents were still being stored at Mar-a-Lago.
During the Aug. 8 search, the FBI removed 11 more sets of classified documents including some that were marked “Top Secret,” according to news reports.
The Washington Post had reported that documents describing a foreign government’s nuclear capability was found by federal officers as well as other documents detailing Top Secret U.S. operations so “closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them.”
More than 10,000 documents without classifications markings were also recovered, according to unsealed documents.
Trump was issued a subpoena back in June to return any other government documents he was in possession of.
Two of Trump’s cracker jack lawyers signed an affidavit saying that there were no more government documents left at Mar-a-Lago, that they had all been returned to the NARA
Trump attorney Alina Habba went as far as to go on the Charlie Kirk show and said she personally “scoured” the former president’s Mara-a-Lago residence and personal office with explicit permission from Trump just days before the FBI raided the estate to recover more highly sensitive documents.
Habba claimed to have searched “all desks, drawers, nightstands, dressers, closets, etc.”
This could potentially open up Habba to her own legal problems if she knowingly lied to government authorities.
In July the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had opened up a criminal investigation into Donald Trump for his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 riot.
Authorities are probing into whether Trump violated the law in his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election by not only pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to send the votes back to the states he lost as well as an alleged effort made by Trump to submit an alternate slate of electors for the electoral college vote count to swing the election in his favor.
According to The Washington Post, federal prosecutors have questioned two top aides to former Vice President Pence before a grand jury and were asked questions about conversations with the former president and his legal counsel. On Sept. 13 the Justice Department issued over 30 more subpoenas to people within Trump’s orbit, including former White House Council Pat Cipiloni, to appear in front of the grand jury, according to CNN
A criminal investigation is also underway in Fulton County, Georgia, for another Trump alleged act to overturn the 2020 election.
The now famous phone call that Trump made to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger on Jan. 2 urging him to find “11,780” votes in his state to win it. One more vote than President Joe Biden had received.
Trump did not see the phone call as corrupt. Trump took to his failing platform Truth Social to say that it was an ‘absolute perfect phone call to the Secretary of State.”
A House Select Committee is also conducting an ongoing investigation into the former president’s involvement in the Jan. 6 riot separate from the investigation by the DOJ.
The bipartisan committee has conducted thousands of interviews from witnesses.
The highly rated televised hearings have been able to paint a picture of what happened leading up to and on Jan. 6 and who was involved in the process.
Senator and committee member Adam Kinssinger (R-IL) stated that he believed the committee has uncovered that “various criminal acts” had been committed.
When Kissinger was asked if he thinks the Jan 6 committee will make a criminal referral to the DOJ, he responded that “We need to finish our investigation before we start doing that.”
These investigations all revolve around his time as President. These investigations do not include the legal trouble he is in in the State of New York.
Trump has taken to Truth Social to state that’s “The political persecution of President Donald J. Trump has been going on for years, with the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax # 2, and so much more, it just never ends . It’s political targeting at its highest level.”
