Donald Trump is being investigated for potentially mishandling information related to US national defense in violation of the Espionage Act, along with other possible violations related to the handling of government documents, according to an FBI search warrant for the former president’s home.
A search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate Monday that sparked a backlash among his political supporters led to the seizure of a trove of classified and highly sensitive national security documents, court documents released Friday revealed.
The warrant, signed by a federal judge on August 5, calls for the FBI to search Trump’s office as well as “all storage facilities” and premises used by the former president and his staff.
It also asked federal agents to seize “all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, and other items” that may have violated the law in any of three possible ways. The first relates to the “collection, loss or transmission of defense information” under the Espionage Act – a serious national security offense – while the second and third relate to the removal, destruction, alteration or concealment of federal documents.
The court filing also contained a list of items seized by federal agents at Trump’s property. It included information related to the “President of France,” the “pardon” of Trump ally Roger Stone, binders of photographs, a handwritten note — and most importantly, a variety of top secret and classified documents that require special government care.
The search warrant underscores the seriousness of the investigation Trump is facing. The FBI and Justice Department had no further comment beyond filing the search warrant in court. The Justice Department called for the warrant to be made public, but Trump also ultimately supported its release. The order was served on his lawyers on the day of the search.
The revelation that Trump kept top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — including at least one that pertains to a foreign leader — will bolster claims by the Justice Department and the FBI that they acted properly in their decision to search his home .
The Washington Post reported late Thursday that some of the documents were related to nuclear weapons, although the FBI, DoJ and National Security Council declined to comment on the report.
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In a series of posts on Truth Social on Friday, Trump derided the search and any suggestion of wrongdoing as a politically motivated pursuit. “The nuclear weapons issue is a hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax,” he wrote, referring to the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election while he was in office. .
Trump also went on to criticize the FBI — “The same dirty people involved” — and said U.S. law enforcement could have obtained the documents at Mar-a-Lago at any time. “ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK.”
But prosecutors have been negotiating with Trump and his team for weeks about the importance of producing the documents — so much so that they issued a subpoena for them earlier this year.
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Even with the release of the search warrant and inventory list, the motivation behind the Mar-a-Lago search won’t be fully known until an affidavit supporting the warrant is released or federal prosecutors file charges.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the Trump investigation for three days after the raid, sticking to its policy of not commenting on pending cases. But on Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a terse statement after criticism that he did not provide an explanation for the move.
Garland did not offer any new details about the probe, but said he personally approved the search and would not take such a step “lightly.” He also fiercely defended the work of the FBI and Justice Department after they became the focus of fierce criticism from Trump and his allies against America’s hard right.
Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a Democrat from California, said the documents released Friday showed the search was justified.
“If the reports are accurate and contained among these documents, it is some of the most highly classified information our government possesses. . . then that would explain a lot why the department and the FBI took the step of getting a warrant to recover the documents,” he said. “Every day that classified information like this is in an insecure location is a risk to our national security.”
But Republicans remained dubious. “Where is the affidavit? We still need to see the affidavit,” Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, tweeted.
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