The FBI recovered documents that were labeled “top secret” from former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to court documents released Friday after a federal judge unsealed the warrant which authorized the unprecedented search this week.
A property receipt unsealed by the court shows FBI agents took 11 sets of classified records from the estate during a search Monday.
The seized records include some that were marked top secret and also “sensitive compartmentalized information,” a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets that if publicly disclosed could cause “exceptionally serious” harm to states’ interests united Court records did not provide specific details about the documents or what information they might contain.
The warrant details that federal agents were investigating possible violations of three different federal laws, including one governing the collection, transmission or loss of defense information under the Espionage Act. The other statutes address the concealment, mutilation, or removal of records and the destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The property receipt also showed that federal agents collected other potential presidential records, including the pardon order for Trump ally Roger Stone, a “bound box of documents” and information about the “President of France “. A photo folder, a handwritten note, “miscellaneous secret documents” and “miscellaneous confidential documents” were also seized in the search.
Trump’s attorney Christina Bobb, who was present at Mar-a-Lago when agents conducted the search, signed both property receipts — one two-page and one single-page.
In a statement last Friday, Trump claimed that the documents seized by agents from his Florida club located on the estate were “all declassified” and argued that he would have turned over the documents to the Justice Department if asked.
While sitting presidents have the power to declassify information, that authority expires as soon as they leave office, and it’s unclear whether the documents in question have ever been declassified. And even an incumbent’s powers to declassify may be limited for secrets dealing with nuclear weapons programs, covert operations and operations, and some data shared with allies.
Trump maintained possession of the documents despite multiple requests from agencies, including the National Archives, to hand over the presidential records under federal law.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is seen in Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday. (Steve Helbe/The Associated Press)
The Mar-a-Lago search warrant served Monday was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Trump’s home earlier this year. The Archives had asked the department to investigate after it said 15 boxes of records it recovered from the estate contained classified records.
It’s still unclear whether the Justice Department moved forward with the warrant only as a means to retrieve the records or as part of a broader criminal investigation. Several federal laws govern the handling of classified information, with criminal and civil penalties, as well as presidential records.
“The clear and powerful interest of the public”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the same judge who signed the search warrant, unsealed the warrant and receipt for the property on Friday at the Justice Department’s request after Attorney General Merrick Garland said there there was “substantial public interest in this matter” and Trump. supported the “immediate” release of the order. The Justice Department told the judge late Friday that Trump’s lawyers did not object to the proposal to make it public.
In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “Not only will I not oppose the release of the documents…I am going one step further, ENCOURAGING the immediate release of these documents.”
The Justice Department’s request is surprising because such documents traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation. But the department appeared to acknowledge that its silence since the investigation had created a vacuum for the bitter verbal attacks from Trump and his allies, and that the public had a right to side with the FBI on what prompted the action. Monday at the former president’s home.
“The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what happened under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of sealing,” said a motion filed in federal court in Florida on Thursday.
FBI and Justice Department be mum
The information was released as Trump prepared for another run at the White House. During his 2016 campaign, he frequently pointed to an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information.
To get a search warrant, federal authorities must show a judge that there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. Garland said he personally approved the warrant, a decision he said the department did not make lightly given that standard practice, whenever possible, is to select less intrusive tactics than a home search.
FBI and Justice Department policy cautions against discussing ongoing investigations, both to protect the integrity of the investigations and to avoid unfairly defaming someone who is being scrutinized but ultimately not charged. This is especially true in the case of search warrants, where supporting court documents are routinely kept secret as the investigation progresses.
LOOK | The unsealed warrant could offer insight, the legal expert says: 
US legal expert says unsealed warrant could provide insight into FBI search of Mar-a-Lago
Even a general list of the material taken could provide insight into why a warrant was issued to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, says Massachusetts law professor Lawrence Douglas.
In that case, according to a person familiar with the matter, there was substantial engagement with Trump and his representatives before the search warrant, including a subpoena for records and a visit to Mar-a-Lago ago a couple of months by FBI and Justice Department officials to assess how the documents were stored. The person was not authorized to speak about the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Justice Department under Garland has been wary of making public statements about politically charged investigations or confirming how much Trump might be investigating as part of a broader investigation into the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol and the efforts to nullify the results of the 2020 elections.
The department has tried to avoid being seen as injecting itself into presidential politics, as happened in 2016 when then-FBI Director James Comey made an unusual public statement announcing that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges against Clinton over her handling of email, and when he spoke again just over a week before the election to notify Congress that the investigation was effectively being reopened due to the discovery of new emails.
The attorney general also condemned verbal attacks on FBI and Justice Department personnel over the investigation. Some Republican allies of Trump have called for the FBI to be defunded. A large number of Trump supporters have called for the order to be released in the hope that it will prove that Trump was unfairly targeted.
“I will not stand idly by when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said of federal law enforcement officers, calling them “patriotic and dedicated public servants.”
Earlier Thursday, a gunman wearing body armor tried to breach a security checkpoint at an FBI field office in Ohio, then fled and was later killed after a standoff with U.S. forces. order A law enforcement official briefed on the matter identified the man as Ricky Shiffer and said he is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol and may have been there the day it took place .