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The FBI said it had “probable cause to believe” that additional records containing classified information, including National Defense Information, would be found on the premises of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home beyond what he had previously turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration, according to the unsealed and heavily-redacted affidavit used to justify the raid released Friday.
The affidavit was unsealed Friday, after U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approved the DOJ’s proposed redactions to the document.
Approximately 20 pages of the 38-page affidavit were either significantly or fully redacted.
“The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records,” the affidavit states.
The affidavit states that the FBI’s investigation had “established that documents bearing classification markings, which appear to contain National Defense Information (NDI), were among the materials contained” in the 15 boxes Trump initially turned over to the NARA.
The FBI stated that they had “probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified NDI or that are presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain at the premises.”
Former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
(Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Reinhart said the government had “met its burden of showing a compelling reason” and “good cause” to keep portions of the affidavit under seal.
The Justice Department said, and Reinhart agreed, that full disclosure would reveal “the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties,” the investigation’s “strategy, direction, scope, sources and methods” and “grand jury information” protected by federal rules.
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Reinhart signed the FBI’s warrant for the raid on Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 5, giving the FBI authority to conduct its search–a document Reinhart unsealed, along with the property receipt from the raid earlier this month.
According to the property receipt, FBI agents took approximately 20 boxes of items from the premises, including one set of documents marked as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” which refers to top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
Records covered by that government classification level could potentially include human intelligence and information that, if disclosed, could jeopardize relations between the U.S. and other nations, as well as the lives of intelligence operatives abroad. However, the classification also encompasses national security information related to the daily operations of the president of the United States.
Former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI earlier this month.
The property receipt also showed that FBI agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents and three sets of confidential documents, but the document does not reveal any details about any of those records.
DOJ ‘TAINT TEAM’ EXAMINING TRUMP MAR-A-LAGO DOCUMENTS
The government conducted the search in response to what it believed to be a violation of federal laws: 18 USC 793 — gathering, transmitting or losing defense information; 18 USC 2071 — concealment, removal or mutilation; and 18 USC 1519 — destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The FBI has been criticized for raiding former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home
(Fox News)
The allegation of “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information” falls under the Espionage Act.
Former President Trump and his team are disputing the classification and say they believe the information and records to have been declassified.
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Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital that the FBI also seized boxes containing records covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege during its raid.
Trump and his legal team have filed a motion requesting the appointment of a special master to review those records covered by attorney-client privilege.
