An old Donald Trump video in which he vows to “enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information” has come back to bite him.
The ex-president, 76, had his Florida home raided by the FBI last Monday, in a bid to find out whether Mr Trump improperly handled government records when he left office.
Images shared by by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman and published by Axios, appeared to show torn up documents floating in two toilets – backing up reports that Mr Trump tried to destroy presidential paperwork by simply flushing it away.
Posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, Mr Trump wrote: “This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”
A video now circulating social media casts viewers minds back to August 2016, in which Mr Trump tells his audience: “On political corruption, we are going to restore honour to our government.”
“In my administration, I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” he adds, “No one will be above the law.”
Eleven sets of classified documents were recovered from the search at Mr Trump’s Palm Beach House ‘Mar-a-Lago’, in what became the first time in history that a former president’s home has been raided in a criminal probe.
The FBI took Mr Trump’s passports in the raid – something which would usually only happen if investigators thought the suspect was a flight risk. Though US media reports suggest Mr Trump’s passports have now been returned.
Several news organisations have applied to have the affidavit – a court document showing the evidence required to obtain the search warrant – lifted. But the US Department of Justice said disclosing such information could cause “irreparable damage” to the investigation, which also involves “highly classified materials”.
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