Photo: One of Classified Docs Found at Mar-a-Lago Was From Day After Trump Announced JCPOA Pullout
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In a recent court filing by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), investigators included in a dossier of evidence a photo of several of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. One of the files is from the day after then-US President Donald Trump announced he was unilaterally pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal.
The photo was snapped by FBI investigators on August 8 during their raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and estate in Palm Beach, Florida, as they documented the discovery of what they had come for: suspected classified documents taken by Trump as he left office last year.
The scattering of several dozen files includes at least seven with visible color-coded classified cover sheets, including SECRET/SCI (sensitive compartmented information) and TOP SECRET/SCI, the two highest known levels of classification. However, several others also have their cover sheets folded back, and while most of the page contents are redacted in the photo filed with the court, some information is visible, including the date they were created.
An FBI photo of several classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago during an August 8, 2022, raid. Among them are files marked TOP SECRET/SCI, the highest known level of classification.
Bloomberg also noted that the documents in the photo lack markings to indicate they had been declassified, which Trump claimed he had done in the aftermath of the FBI raid. The outlet noted that experts consulted about the photo pointed out that the materials were printed on White House letterhead, meaning they were probably produced by National Security Council (NSC) staff based on other intelligence reports.
Two of the visible file dates are for August 26, 2018. It’s not immediately clear what they could be in reference to, although that was the day that the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) died, who had been a strong critic of Trump.
Ending the Iran Nuclear Deal
A third file has the date Wednesday, May 9, 2018, which was the day after Trump announced the US would leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 2015 deal between Iran, the European Union, and six other nations. The deal removed economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for them forswearing nuclear weapons and accepting strict limitations on their nuclear power program.
Close-up of a classified file found by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago, bearing the date "Wednesday May 9, 2018.
“Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie. Last week, Israel published intelligence documents - long concealed by Iran - conclusively showing the Iranian regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons,” Trump claimed the day before, on May 8.
Three months after his announcement, the US began reimposing sanctions on the Iranian economy, severely hurting its trade with European nations and many others, and deeply impacting sales of its primary export: petroleum. This became part of a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran that aimed at regime change and included US military drills off the coast, flying spy drones into Iranian airspace, and sabotage attacks against Iran’s nuclear program, culminating in the January 2020 assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, on a peace mission to Baghdad.
Despite claims by Trump and the Israeli government under then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no other party to the JCPOA was convinced by any of the evidence supplied to them that Iran had violated the terms of the deal. Only the threat of US sanctions against them compelled nations and companies to abide by the US trade ban, including the Brussels-based SWIFT international bank wire service. Iran and the EU worked for years to build a workable alternative to SWIFT, dubbed the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), which has never adequately replaced it.
In the four years since Trump claimed that “In just a short period of time, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Iran has made no attempt to build such a weapon, as CIA Director William Burns has admitted. US President Joe Biden has initiated talks to revive the deal, but no such agreement has yet been reached.
It’s not exactly clear why Trump would keep documents related to the JCPOA, or even if the file in question is related to it.
FILE - This is an aerial view of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla.
© AP Photo / Steve Helber
Raid Found Hundreds of Files
Court filings subsequently released by the DOJ in the wake of the August 8 search and seizure have revealed the large volume of missing classified files found by the FBI on that day and by the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) during a previous voluntary yielding of documents found at Mar-a-Lago in January 2022.
According to the filings, more than 300 classified documents were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in the January and August searches.
While no charges have yet been brought against Trump, the search warrant indicated it was authorized under suspicion of violation of the Espionage Act, the mishandling of documents, and obstruction of justice.
Trump has claimed the raid was "not necessary or appropriate” and representative of “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for president in 2024.” After the above photo of documents was published by the media, he accused the FBI of staging the photo to discredit him.
