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Former President Trump said the FBI seized three of his passports during its raid on Mar-a-Lago last week, calling the unprecedented search an “assault.”
“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump posted on his TRUTH Social account. “This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country.”
He added: “Third World!”
The FBI carried out a search warrant at the former president’s private residence in Palm Beach, Fla. last week, in which agents seized classified records, including some marked as top secret. Trump is disputing the classification of those records, saying the records have been declassified.
Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital over the weekend that the FBI also seized boxes containing records covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege during its raid.
FBI SEIZES PRIVILEGED TRUMP RECORDS DURING RAID; DOJ OPPOSES REQUEST FOR INDEPENDENT REVIEW: SOURCES
Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Saturday that the former president’s team was informed that boxes labeled A-14, A-26, A-43, A-13, A-33, and a set of documents–all seen on the final page of the FBI’s unsealed property receipt –contained information covered by attorney-client privilege.
Then-President Donald Trump outside the White House in 2020.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Attorney-client privilege refers to a legal privilege that keeps communications between an attorney and their client confidential.
Sources told Fox News Digital that some records could be covered by executive privilege, which gives the President of the United States and other officials within the executive branch the authority to withhold certain sensitive forms of advice and consultation between the president and senior advisers.
It is unclear, at this point, if the records include communications between the former president and his private attorneys, White House counsel during the Trump administration, or a combination.
Sources told Fox News that, due to attorney-client privilege, Trump’s team asked the Justice Department for their position on whether they would support a third party, independent special master to review those records, but sources told Fox News that the DOJ notified Trump’s team that they would oppose that request.
The Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment.
According to the property receipt, which U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart unsealed Friday, along with the search warrant, 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 United States 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.
The property receipt also shows that FBI agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents.
FBI SEIZED CLASSIFIED RECORDS FROM MAR-A-LAGO DURING SEARCH OF TRUMP RESIDENCE
The property receipt does not reveal any details about any of those records.
The list also includes a “leatherbound box of documents,” binders of photos, handwritten notes, miscellaneous documents, miscellaneous top secret documents, miscellaneous confidential documents, and other records.
The government conducted the search in response to what it believes 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.
Former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
(Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The allegation of “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information” falls under the Espionage Act.
The former president and his team, though, are disputing the classification and say they believe the information and records to have been declassified.
Meanwhile, during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital Monday, Trump said he had his representatives reach out to the Justice Departmentto offer to help amid outrage over the FBI’s unprecedented raid.
“The country is in a very dangerous position. There is tremendous anger, like I’ve never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one–years of scams and witch hunts, and now this,” Trump said.
“If there is anything we can do to help, I, and my people, would certainly be willing to do that,” Trump said.
A police officer speaks with a woman outside former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home after Trump said that FBI agents raided it, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., August 8, 2022.
(REUTERS/Marco Bello)
“There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former President of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country–at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times,” Trump said.
Trump told Fox News that his team “has not heard yet” from the Justice Department on whether they will accept his offer for help.
“I think they would want the same thing–I’ve never seen anything like this,” Trump said. “It is a very dangerous time for our country.”
He added: “I will do whatever I can to help the country.”
