US Department of Justice: Secret documents stashed with Trump to obstruct investigation

A report issued by the US Department of Justice accused former President Donald Trump's team of obstructing investigations into confidential documents confiscated at his residence, while the latter demands the appointment of a third party to examine the documents.

A report issued by the US Department of Justice confirmed that files seized at the residence of former US President Donald Trump in Florida were "probably hidden" to obstruct the investigation targeting him.

The procedural document issued on Tuesday night, Wednesday, explains, in the most detailed form so far, the motives behind the FBI's search of the former president's residence on August 8, to seize very secret files that he did not hand over after leaving the White House despite his requests to do so several times.

The document asserts that before carrying out the operation, the US Federal Police found "a number of evidence" confirming that "classified classified files" are still located at Trump's residence in Mar-a-Lago.

She added that "the government has also obtained evidence that there are government files that may have been hidden and taken... and that actions may have taken place to obstruct the investigation."

In this context, the document revealed that Trump's lawyers "explicitly prohibited government employees from opening or looking inside any of the boxes" in the storage room, when FBI agents first traveled to the Mar-a-Lago resort in June to retrieve the records.

In its filing to the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida, the department said the government also found evidence that "government records may have been concealed and removed from the storage room in an effort likely to obstruct the government's investigation."

On the last page, the US Department of Justice attached the document with a picture of files seized by the Federal Police marked "Top Secret".

The department said it explained the measures that led to the raid in order to "correct the incomplete and inaccurate account presented in Trump's statements."

The department's statement came in response to Trump's demand, last week, that files seized by the Federal Police at his residence be examined by an independent third party, at a time when Trump considers that the government is persecuting him.

The document indicated that the appointment of a third party could prevent investigators from accessing the documents, and considered that the judiciary should not do so, "because the (seized) documents do not belong to Trump."

And she stressed that this measure "is not necessary and would cause great harm to the interests of the government, especially with regard to national security."

The Justice Department confirmed that some of the documents seized on August 8 bore the marking "AHCS", which in US intelligence language refers to information provided by "human sources", informants, and other secret agents.

Investigators suspect that the Republican president has violated a US law on espionage that clearly regulates the possession of classified documents. Donald Trump confirmed that the documents have been declassified.

Trump, who intends to run for the presidential elections in 2024, has long criticized this process, which he sees as an example of the "wild campaign" targeting him and the administration behind his successor, Joe Biden.

A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday in West Palm Beach before Judge Elaine Cannon, who is considering Trump's request to appoint a special judicial supervisor to review documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.