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FBI
seized
'top
secret'
documents
from
Trump's
Florida
compound
By
MICHAEL
BALSAMO,
ZEKE
MILLER
and
ERIC
TUCKER
apnews.com
WASHINGTON
- The
FBI
recovered
documents
that
were
labeled
“top
secret”
from
former
President
Donald
Trump’s
Mar-a-Lago
estate
in
Florida,
according
to court
papers
released
Friday
after a
federal
judge
unsealed
the
warrant
that
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
on
Monday.
The
seized
records
include
some
that
were
marked
classified
as top
secret
and also
“sensitive
compartmented
information,”
a
special
category
meant to
protect
the
nation’s
most
important
secrets
and
those
that if
revealed
publicly
would
harm
U.S.
interests.
The
court
records
did not
provide
specific
details
about
the
documents
or what
information
they
might
contain.
The
warrant
details
that
federal
agents
were
investigating
potential
violations
of three
different
federal
laws,
including
one that
governs
gathering,
transmitting
or
losing
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
federal
agents
collected
other
potential
presidential
records,
including
the
order
pardoning
Trump
ally
Roger
Stone, a
“leatherbound
box of
documents,”
and
information
about
the
“President
of
France.”
A binder
of
photos,
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 the
agents
conducted
the
search,
signed
both
property
receipts
— one
that was
two
pages
long and
another
that is
a single
page.
In a
statement
earlier
Friday,
Trump
claimed
that the
documents
seized
by
agents
were
“all
declassified,”
and
argued
that he
would
have
turned
over the
documents
to the
Justice
Department
if
asked.
While
incumbent
presidents
have the
power to
declassify
information,
that
authority
lapses
as soon
as they
leave
office
and it
was not
clear if
the
documents
in
question
have
ever
been
declassified.
Trump
also
kept
possession
of the
documents
despite
multiple
requests
from
agencies,
including
the
National
Archives,
to turn
over
presidential
records
in
accordance
with
federal
law.
U.S.
Magistrate
Judge
Bruce
Reinhart,
the same
judge
who
signed
off on
the
search
warrant,
unsealed
the
warrant
and
property
receipt
Friday
at the
request
of the
Justice
Department
after
Attorney
General
Merrick
Garland
declared
there
was
“substantial
public
interest
in this
matter,”
and
Trump
backed
the
warrant’s
“immediate”
release.
The
Justice
Department
told the
judge
Friday
afternoon
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
documents
... I am
going a
step
further
by
ENCOURAGING
the
immediate
release
of those
documents.”
Trump
himself
had been
given at
least
some of
the
records
the
government
was
seeking
to
unseal,
but he
and his
lawyers
have
declined,
so far,
to make
them
public.
The
Justice
Department’s
request
is
striking
because
such
documents
traditionally
remain
sealed
during a
pending
investigation.
But the
department
appeared
to
recognize
that its
silence
since
the
search
had
created
a vacuum
for
bitter
verbal
attacks
by Trump
and his
allies,
and that
the
public
was
entitled
to the
FBI’s
side
about
what
prompted
Monday’s
action
at the
former
president’s
home.
“The
public’s
clear
and
powerful
interest
in
understanding
what
occurred
under
these
circumstances
weighs
heavily
in favor
of
unsealing,”
said a
motion
filed in
federal
court in
Florida
on
Thursday.
The
information
was
released
as(
Trump
prepares
for
another
run for
the
White
House.
During
his 2016
campaign,
he
pointed
frequently
to an
FBI
investigation
into his
Democratic
opponent,
Hillary
Clinton,
over
whether
she
mishandled
classified
information.
To
obtain a
search
warrant,
federal
authorities
must
prove to
a judge
that
probable
cause
exists
to
believe
that a
crime
was
committed.
Garland
said he
personally
approved
the
warrant,
a
decision
he said
the
department
did not
take
lightly
given
that
standard
practice
where
possible
is to
select
less
intrusive
tactics
than a
search
of one’s
home.
In
this
case,
according
to a
person
familiar
with the
matter,
there
was
substantial
engagement
with
Trump
and his
representatives
prior to
the
search
warrant,
including
a
subpoena
for
records
and a
visit to
Mar-a-Lago
a couple
of
months
ago by
FBI and
Justice
Department
officials
to
assess
how the
documents
were
stored.
The
person
was not
authorized
to
discuss
the
matter
by name
and
spoke on
condition
of
anonymity.
Neither
Trump
nor the
FBI has
said
anything
about
what
documents
the FBI
might
have
recovered,
or what
precisely
agents
were
looking
for.
FBI
and
Justice
Department
policy
cautions
against
discussing
ongoing
investigations,
both to
protect
the
integrity
of the
inquiries
and to
avoid
unfairly
maligning
someone
who is
being
scrutinized
but
winds up
ultimately
not
being
charged.
That’s
especially
true in
the case
of
search
warrants,
where
supporting
court
papers
are
routinely
kept
secret
as the
investigation
proceeds.
In
this
case,
though,
Garland
cited
the fact
that
Trump
himself
had
provided
the
first
public
confirmation
of the
FBI
search,
“as is
his
right.”
The
Justice
Department,
in its
new
filing,
also
said
that
disclosing
information
about it
now
would
not harm
the
court’s
functions.
The
Justice
Department
under
Garland
has been
leery of
public
statements
about
politically
charged
investigations,
or of
confirming
to what
extent
it might
be
investigating
Trump as
part of
a
broader
probe
into the
Jan. 6
riot at
the U.S.
Capitol
and
efforts
to
overturn
the
results
of the
2020
election.
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 be
recommending
criminal
charges
against
Clinton
regarding
her
handling
of email
— and
when he
spoke up
again
just
over a
week
before
the
election
to
notify
Congress
that the
probe
was
being
effectively
reopened
because
of the
discovery
of new
emails.
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 in
Palm
Beach,
Florida,
earlier
this
year.
The
National
Archives
had
asked
the
department
to
investigate
after
saying
15 boxes
of
records
it
retrieved
from the
estate
included
classified
records.
Multiple
federal
laws
govern
the
handling
of
classified
information.
The
attorney
general
also
condemned
verbal
attacks
on FBI
and
Justice
Department
personnel
over the
search.
Some
Republican
allies
of Trump
have
called
for the
FBI to
be
defunded.
Large
numbers
of Trump
supporters
have
called
for the
warrant
to be
released
hoping
they it
will
show
that
Trump
was
unfairly
targeted.
“I
will not
stand by
silently
when
their
integrity
is
unfairly
attacked,”
Garland
said of
federal
law
enforcement
agents,
calling
them
“dedicated,
patriotic
public
servants.”
Earlier
Thursday,
an armed
man
wearing
body
armor
tried to
breach a
security
screening
area at
an FBI
field
office
in Ohio,
then
fled and
was
later
killed
after a
standoff
with law
enforcement.
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 on
the day
it took
place.
_____
Associated
Press
writers
Lindsay
Whitehurst
and Meg
Kinnard
contributed
to this
report.
___
More
on
Donald
Trump-related
investigations:
https://apnews.com
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