Federal law enforcement officials removed nearly a dozen sets of classified information this week from former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal, which reviewed official documents related to the items that were removed from the property, reported that some of the materials removed were “marked as top secret and meant to be only available in special government facilities.”
Fox News, which confirmed the report, said that the warrant gave permission to search “the ‘45 Office,’ all storage rooms, and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by FPOTUS and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.”
The report said that investigators recovered “four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents.”
Investigators took approximately 20 boxes of items from the property, double what had previously been reported, after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the warrant to search the estate.
“Just now the Justice Department has filed a motion in the southern district of Florida to unseal a search warrant and property receipt relating to a court-approved search that the F.B.I. conducted earlier this week” at Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, Garland said. “The department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances, and the substantial public interest in this matter.”
“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” Garland later added. “Second, the department does not take such a decision lightly. Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken.”
The Washington Post claimed in a report on Thursday that officials were allegedly searching for highly classified documents on “nuclear weapons” when they searched the property. The report said that those familiar with the matter did not offer any specific details on whether the alleged documents on nuclear weapons were about weapons that were possessed by the United States or a foreign nation, and they did not disclose what was recovered during the search.
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