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Nuclear documents among those sought in Trump raid

Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores the deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach club where Trump lives, and in danger of falling into to the wrong hands.

The people who described some of the material that agents were seeking spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. They did not offer additional detail about what type of information the agents were seeking, including whether it involved weapons belonging to the United States or to some other nation. Nor did they say if such documents were recovered as part of the search. A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said he could not discuss the investigation yesterday. But in an unusual public statement at the Justice Department, he announced he had personally authorised the decision to conduct the court-ordered search. Garland spoke moments after Justice Department lawyers filed a motion seeking to unseal the search warrant in the case, noting that Trump had publicly revealed the search shortly after it happened.

‘‘The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favour of unsealing,’’ the motion says. ‘‘That said, the former president should have an opportunity to respond to this Motion and lodge objections, including with regards to any legitimate privacy interests’ or the potential for other ‘injury’ if these materials are made public.’’

Material about nuclear weapons is especially sensitive and usually restricted to a small number of government officials, experts said. Publicising details about US weapons could provide an intelligence roadmap to adversaries seeking to build ways of countering those systems. And other countries might view exposing their nuclear secrets as a threat, experts said.

One former Justice Department official, who in the past oversaw investigations of leaks of classified information, said that type of top-secret information described by the people familiar with the probe would likely cause authorities to try to move as quickly as possible to recover sensitive documents that could cause grave harm to US security.

‘‘If that is true, it would suggest that material residing unlawfully at Mar-a-Lago may have been classified at the highest classification level,’’ said David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section, which investigates leaks of classified information. ‘‘So if the FBI and the Department of Justice believed there were top secret materials still at Mar-a-Lago, that would lend itself to greater ‘hair-on-fire’ motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible,’’ Laufman said.

The search of Trump’s home by FBI agents has caused a politi

‘‘So if the FBI and the Department of Justice believed there were top secret materials still at Mar-a-Lago, that would lend itself to greater ‘hair-on-fire’ motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible.’’

David Laufman

Former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section

cal furore, with Trump and many of his Republican defenders accusing the FBI of acting out of politically-motivated malice. Some have threatened the agency on social media. As Garland spoke yesterday, police in Ohio were engaged in a standoff with an armed man who allegedly tried to storm the Cincinnati office of the FBI. The man was killed by police later that day; authorities said negotiations failed.

State and federal officials declined to name the man or describe a potential motive. However, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post that investigators have identified him as Ricky Shiffer.

According to another law enforcement official familiar with the investigation, agents are investigating Shiffer’s possible ties to extremist groups, including the Proud Boys – a far-right group whose leaders are accused of helping launch the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

In addition, a person using Shiffer’s name on Truth Social, Trump’s social media site, posted a ‘‘call to arms’’ message shortly after Monday’s FBI search.

World

en-nz

2022-08-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281921661825669

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