Former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was raided by the FBI earlier this week. A federal judge has now unsealed the warrant used for that search.
Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images
hide title
change the title
Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images
Former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was raided by the FBI earlier this week. A federal judge has now unsealed the warrant used for that search.
Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images
A federal judge in Florida has unsealed documents related to an FBI search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home that took place earlier this week.
The documents include both the search warrant and the property declaration, which describes what was taken by authorities. They describe agents finding secret and classified documents in Monday’s search.
Read the full order and property bill below, or click here.
The search warrant also reveals that FBI agents were seeking evidence related to three statutes. The first, Article 793, applies to the collection, loss or sharing with an unauthorized person of information related to national defense. Sections 2071 and 1519 deal with concealment, destruction, or removal of documents.
The warrant allows for the seizure of “all documents and physical records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime or other items unlawfully possessed in violation of” various aspects of the Espionage Act.
Documents show Judge Bruce Reinhart approved the search warrant on Aug. 5 at 12:12 p.m., three days before the raid took place. Searches were to be completed by August 19, from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
It also says that within the Mar-a-Lago property, places that could be searched included “45 Office” and “all storage rooms, and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available for use by the FPOTUS and his staff and in which boxes or documents may be stored, including all structures or buildings on the property.“
The search did not include areas used by third parties, such as members of Mar-a-Lago, which also serves as a clubhouse.
Trump has yet to issue a statement in response to the declassification of the documents, but the former president has been posting repeatedly on his social media platform Truth Social throughout the day, claiming that the documents that were seized were all declassified.
He also said that the authorities could have had the documents whenever they wanted if they had asked, and that he had put the documents in a safe with a lock, which he claims the authorities had requested.
Some of the documents seized by the FBI were listed under specific titles, including an Executive Grant of Mercy to: Roger Jason Stone, Jr. and one titled “Info re: The President of France.”
Other items are listed as secret or classified documents. The list includes the photo binder and an article labeled “potential presidential record.” There are also items listed simply as boxes.
Appendix B of the document shows what would be seized and says agents were to collect evidence that includes physical documents with classification markings and the containers or boxes in which those documents were located, as well as other containers that were stored or found with them. . the documents.
They were also to intercept “information, including communications in any form, relating to the receipt, storage or transmission of national defense information or classified material”.
The document also called for the seizure of any presidential or government records and any evidence of the alteration or destruction of those records or other classified documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in comments Thursday that he had filed the motion to have the documents released. Trump had the option to oppose the motion, but late Thursday night, the former president said he encouraged the “immediate release” of the documents.
Garland said Trump’s lawyer was given a copy of the search warrant and the estate bill so the former president also could have released the documents at will.
