Önder Özar Diplomasi Sevgisi: Agents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago seized 11 sets of classified documents, unsealed filing shows

Agents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago seized 11 sets of classified documents, unsealed filing shows

The search warrant lists potential crimes including mishandling defense information and destruction of records

By Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey

August 12, 2022 at 3:55 p.m. EDT

A Secret Service agent at the entrance of former president Donald Trump's house at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg)

The FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida home earlier this week found four sets of top-secret documents, and seven other sets of less-secret but still classified information, according to a list of items seized in the high-profile raid and unsealed by a federal magistrate judge on Friday.

The written inventory — a document provided by investigators after a search — says the FBI took about 20 boxes of items from the Mar-a-Lago Club on Monday, including photo binders, information about the president of France, and a variety of classified material.

One set of documents is listed as “Various classified TS/SCI documents,” a reference to top secret/sensitive compartmented information, one of the more closely-held forms of top-secret information. In addition to the four sets of top-secret papers, agents also took three sets of documents classified as secret, and three sets of papers classified as confidential — the lowest level of classification.

The list doesn’t further describe the subject matter of any of the classified documents.

The warrant signed by a federal magistrate judge authorized FBI agents to search Trump’s office and any “storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by [the former president] and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.”

The warrant said it is seeking all “physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of three potential crimes, including a part of the Espionage Act outlawing gathering, transmitting, or losing national defense information.” The warrant also cites destruction of records and concealment or mutilation of government material. The contents of the warrant and the inventory were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

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The Washington Post reported Thursday that FBI agents who carried out the search at Mar-a-Lago were looking for classified documents about nuclear weapons, among other items, according to people familiar with the investigation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case and did not offer additional details, such as whether the documents involved weapons belonging to the United States or some other nation.

Experts in classified information said the highly unusual search of a former president’s residence underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Mar-a-Lago and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands.

In a statement early Friday, Trump called the nuclear weapons issue a “hoax” and suggested the FBI planted evidence, without offering information to indicate such a thing had happened. Trump said agents did not allow his lawyers to be present for the search, which is not unusual in a law enforcement operation, especially if it potentially involves classified items. A second statement by the former president claimed his predecessor, Barack Obama, kept sensitive documents. “How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!” Trump wrote.

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The warrant was made public a day after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department wanted it unsealed, insisting that officials had scrupulously followed the rules of federal investigations in executing the search and that the public had a right to see the document authorizing them to do so.

Hours after Garland’s announcement, Trump posted on social media that he supported unsealing the documents. He or his lawyers could have shared them anytime since receiving them days ago.

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Typically, search warrants speak in broad terms about what is to be searched, the purpose of the search, and the possible crimes being investigated. When the search is completed, investigators provide a list of property seized, but that also tends to be a general description of items, such as papers or boxes, without describing the particulars of what they contain. For most search warrants, the most detailed description of investigators’ suspicions and what they expect to find are provided in an affidavit from the agent requesting the warrant.

In this case, neither the government nor Trump proposed releasing the affidavit, which is likely to contained far more information about the case. But several news organizations have made that request, and the judge overseeing the case has given the government until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to their motions.

The court-approved search of Trump’s caused a political furor, with Trump and many of his Republican defenders accusing the FBI of acting out of politically motivated malice. Some have threatened the agency on social media, and on Thursday, an armed man stormed the security entrance at the FBI building in Cincinnati. Police pursued him and he was eventually shot and killed by police. Authorities are investigating his possible ties to extremist groups, including the Proud Boys.

The Justice Department’s investigation into the Mar-a-Lago documents began months ago, when the National Archives and Records Administration sought the return of material taken there from the White House. Fifteen boxes of documents and items, some of them marked classified.

This spring, Trump’s team received a grand jury subpoena in connection with the documents investigations, two people familiar with the investigation, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details, confirmed to The Post on Thursday. Investigators visited Mar-a-Lago in the weeks following the issuance of the subpoena, and Trump’s team handed over some materials.

People familiar with the probe have said it is focused on whether the former president or his aides withheld classified or other government material that should have been returned to government custody earlier. The people, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, said that as authorities engaged in months of discussions on the subject, some officials came to suspect the Trump team was not being truthful.

Material about nuclear weapons is especially sensitive and usually restricted to a small number of government officials, experts have said. Publicizing details about U.S. weapons could provide an intelligence road map to adversaries seeking to build ways of countering those systems. And other countries might view exposing their nuclear secrets as a threat, experts said.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

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Önder Özar Diplomasi Sevgisi

Friday, August 12, 2022

Agents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago seized 11 sets of classified documents, unsealed filing shows

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