FBI finds document with nuclear information on foreign state in papers seized from Trump

FBI agents who searched the Mar-a-Lago mansion of former U.S. President Donald Trump have found a document detailing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, ‘The Washington Post’ reported Wednesday.

The document containing the nuclear information was found during federal agents’ Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Florida residence, which was authorized by an FBI affidavit.

The U.S. newspaper had reported in August that the FBI was searching in part for documents containing nuclear information, something Trump later called a “hoax.”

Some of the seized documents detail operations that are classified as top secret and are so closely guarded that many senior national security officials know nothing about them.

Specifically, only the president, certain members of his Cabinet or a close Cabinet official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special access programs, according to people familiar with the search.

Such records are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer carefully monitoring their location, according to ‘The Washington Post.’

The FBI had suspicions that former President Trump had committed crimes under the Espionage Act and other regulations, so it obtained the warrant to inspect the Florida mansion and raided it last Aug. 8. The agents took 33 boxes with more than 100 classified files.

Trump has assured that this is a politically motivated investigation and that some of the documents seized are protected by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege as president.

However, the Department of Justice considers that these are documents classified as secret that should not be in a private home after the end of the presidential term. In addition, it believes that the appointment of a supervisor would paralyze the investigation.

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