Trump aide Kash Patel is granted IMMUNITY and will soon testify about Mar-a-Lago documents

By James On Nov 3, 2022

A top national security official to Donald Trump has been granted immunity from prosecution so that he can testify about the storage of classified documents in Mar-a-Lago.

Kash Patel, 42, told Breitbart News in May that the former president released large amounts of information before leaving the White House.

Thousands of documents — many classified — were found in storage at Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after a series of raids.

After the third and final search, on August 8, the FBI opened an investigation into whether classified information had been mishandled.

Patel appeared before a grand jury in early October as part of the investigation, but invoked the Fifth Amendment several times, saying he could not speak for fear of incriminating himself.

On Wednesday, multiple sources confirmed that Patel had been given immunity, as widely predicted, to obtain his testimony.

Kash Patel, 42, has been granted immunity to testify about Donald Trump’s filing of documents in Mar-a-Lago. Patel was a senior national security adviser to the then president and remains a strong ally

Patel can be seen in an interview with Trump for The Epoch Times in February

Patel appeared before a grand jury in early October as part of the investigation, but invoked the Fifth Amendment several times, saying he could not speak for fear of incriminating himself.

On Wednesday, multiple sources confirmed that Patel had been given immunity, as widely predicted, to obtain his testimony

The 42-year-old told Breitbart News in May that Donald Trump has “released entire sets of material in anticipation of leaving government.”

Agents stand guard outside Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 as the FBI searched the property

Documents seized during the August 8 search of Trump’s estate are pictured on August 30. Trump’s lawyers have declined to say in legal files whether Trump ordered them to release them while he was in office and in authority

Thousands of documents – many of them classified – were found in storage at Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after a series of raids

A staunch Trump loyalist, Patel is a key player in the Trump team’s efforts to fend off the Justice Department’s investigations into Trump and his allies.

Earlier this year, amid repeated requests for Trump to hand the documents over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Trump made him one of his representatives at NARA.

Patel told Breitbart News in May: “Trump has released swaths of material in anticipation of leaving the administration that he felt the American public should have the right to read for themselves.

“I was there with President Trump when he said, ‘We are releasing this information.'”

Among the documents found in the search were files related to Iran, China and French President Emmanuel Macron.

In the third and final search on Aug. 8, agents seized about 13,000 documents, 103 of which are classified and 18 top secret, according to court documents.

Trump himself has repeatedly said he has released the documents.

In September, he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that as president, he could declassify documents just by thinking about them.

Trump spoke to Fox News host Sean Hannity in September about the Mar-a-Lago . raid

Trump told Sean Hannity in an interview from his home in Mar-a-Lago that he could declassify documents just by thinking about them

Trump is pictured on October 9 at a rally in Mesa, Arizona. He has claimed that he released the documents

Hannity asked him if the documents seized during three searches — in January, June and August — have been released, as Trump has repeatedly claimed, and the former president replied, “I did release the declassification, yes.”

Hannity asked him how they had been released.

“There doesn’t have to be a trial, as I understand it,” Trump said.

‘Different people see different things.

“If you’re the president of the United States, you can release declassification by saying it’s declassification. Even by thinking about it – because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or wherever you’re sending it.

‘It doesn’t have to be a process, it can be a process, but it doesn’t have to be. You are the president, you make that decision. So when you send it, it’s released. I released everything.’

However, his own lawyers have failed in their legal arguments to claim that he released the files.

What are classified materials and who can declassify them?

The National Archives and Records Administration’s letter to Congress said it identified items “marked as classified national security information” in 15 boxes of information returned by Trump from Mar-a-Lago. The government keeps different levels of classified information. According to the Senate Intelligence Committee, “Top Secret” information applies to information that could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally serious harm to national security.

One level below is “secret” information, which “could reasonably cause serious damage to national security.” Below that is information that is purely ‘confidential’. This applies to information “the unauthorized disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to cause damage to national security.” In particular, the letter from US archivist David Ferriero did not specify the level at which the information is classified.

The government classifies bulky material and there has been a sustained effort by watchdog groups and some lawmakers to reduce the amount of classification. The Washington Post previously reported that some of the documents Trump took to Mar-a-Lago were clearly marked as classified, and some at the “top secret” level.

It reported that some were “extremely sensitive” and would be limited to a small group of officials. It is a crime to mishandle classified information, and NARA’s letter states that it has been “in communication” with the Department of Justice.

The president has broad unilateral authority to release information. In 2019, Trump tweeted a high-resolution image of an Iranian missile launch, sparking questions about whether he had been spreading classified information. He later tweeted: “We had a photo and I released it, which I have every right to do.”