They took out 11 boxes full of papers, according to official files.
The FBI recovered documents that were labeled “top secret” from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to court documents released Friday after a federal judge removed the seal on the warrant that authorized the search. this week.
A declassified court receipt shows that FBI agents removed 11 boxes of confidential documents from the property in Monday’s operation.
Among them are some that carried the classification of top secret and also of “compartmentalized sensitive information”, a special category that seeks to protect the most important secrets of the nation and those whose public disclosure would harm US interests.
Court records did not provide details about the documents or what information they may contain.
The search warrant details that federal agents were investigating possible violations of three federal laws, including one governing the collection, transmission or loss of defense information under the Espionage Act.
The other two deal with the concealment, mutilation or removal of documents, and the destruction or falsification of files from federal investigations.
The acknowledgment also shows that federal agents collected other potential presidential documents, such as the order pardoning Trump ally Roger Stone, “a leather-bound box of documents” and information about the “president of France.”
A folder of photographs, a handwritten note, “miscellaneous secret documents” and “miscellaneous confidential documents” were also taken during the search.
Trump’s attorney, Christina Bobb, who was present at Mar-a-Lago during the raid, signed the two acknowledgments, one two-page and one single.
In an earlier statement Friday, Trump claimed that all the documents seized by the agents were “declassified” and argued that he would have turned the documents over to the Justice Department if asked.
Although sitting presidents have the authority to declassify information, that authority expires when they leave office, and it was unclear whether the documents in question were declassified.
And even declassification powers may be limited when it comes to secrets related to nuclear weapons programs, covert operations, and some data shared with allies.
Trump also maintained possession of the documents despite numerous requests from federal agencies, including the National Archives, to turn over the presidential records in accordance with federal law.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the same judge who signed the search warrant, authorized the release of the warrant and acknowledgments at the request of the Justice Department after Secretary Merrick Garland stated that there was “a substantial public interest in this matter” and Trump backed the “immediate” release of the order.
In messages posted on his Truth Social network, Trump wrote that “not only will I not oppose the release of the documents…I am going a step further by encouraging the immediate release of those documents.”
The Justice Department’s request was notable because those documents traditionally remain sealed during an ongoing investigation, but the agency apparently acknowledged that its silence since the raid had created an opportunity for the former president and his allies to launch verbal attacks, and felt the The public is entitled to an explanation from the FBI about the cause of Monday’s operation at the former president’s home.
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