The billionaire is targeted by two distinct surveys, concerning the assault against the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and archives carried away from the White House.
MO12345LEMONDE With AP and AFP
The Minister of American justice, Merrick Garland, announced on Friday, November 18, the appointment of an independent prosecutor, Jack Smith, to supervise the investigations concerning former president Donald Trump. The billionaire, who has just declared himself a candidate for the 2024 presidential election, is currently targeted by two distinct surveys of federal justice.
The first focuses on the assault led by his supporters against the Capitol on January 6, 2021 at the time of the victory of the victory of his Democratic Rival Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. This sprawling investigation led to the indictment of Nearly 900 people who directly participated in violence. But prosecutors have never excluded to be interested in other actors. “Each person who is criminally responsible for the efforts to cancel the election will have to answer for his actions,” said Merrick Garland several times.
fifteen cards
The second survey concerns the archives of the White House. Leaving the presidency, Donald Trump took whole boxes of documents. However, a 1978 law obliges any American president to transmit all of his emails, letters and other working documents in the national archives. In January, he returned fifteen boxes.
After examination, federal police said he was probably retaining others in his luxurious Mar-A-Lago residence in Florida. FBI agents led there on August 8 a spectacular search on the basis of a mandate for “retention of classified documents” and “hinders a federal investigation”, and have seized around thirty other boxes. An intense legal battle then opened to determine the nature of the documents seized – classified, personal, declassified? -, which has slowed down the procedure but, again, a federal charge remains possible.
In the past, Donald Trump has already been the subject of a supervised investigation by a special prosecutor: Robert Mueller had been in charge in 2017 to establish if there had been a collusion between his campaign team and the Russia. After two years of investigation, he had considered that he did not have enough evidence of a plot between Moscow and the Trump team, but had raised a series of disturbing pressure exerted by the tenant of the White House on his investigation and S ‘ was said to be unable to whiten it suspected suspension in justice.