A federal court on Friday unsealed the warrant used in the recent search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, days after federal agents conducted an hours-long search of the property on Monday.
The warrant showed that the FBI recovered documents labeled "top secret" from Trump's residence and showed that agents were investigating potential violations of three different federal laws, including one under the Espionage Act.
The warrant says that "all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of" three criminal statutes: 18 U.S. Code § 793 - a subsection of the Espionage Act related to gathering, transmitting or losing defense information; 18 U.S. Code § 2071 - relating to concealment, removal, or mutilation of government records; and 18 U.S. Code § 1519 - destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations and bankruptcy.
The warrant was signed by Trump's attorney, Christina Bobb, and dated Aug. 5, three days before the search was executed. The agents were authorized 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 [the former President of the United States] and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate," according to court documents.
Also unsealed Friday was the property receipt, a list of the items that FBI agents took from the Palm Beach, Florida, estate.
The property receipt said federal officials removed 11 sets of classified documents, including some labeled “top secret / SCI," one of the the highest levels of classification.
The U.S. government classifies high-level information into those three categories – top secret, secret and confidential – which pertain to the likelihood that the release of documents labeled as such might endanger national security. Top secret documents are of the highest classification, as the “unauthorized disclosure [...] reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security” of the United States.
Other contents recovered from the former president’s home included an item labeled “Executive Grant of Clemency re: Roger Jason Stone, Jr.,” a longtime personal friend of Trump and seasoned Republican political consultant, as well as another item labeled "Info re: President of France."
"Mr. Stone has no knowledge as to the facts surrounding his clemency documents appearing on the inventory of items seized from former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago," a spokesperson for Stone told CNN.
In total, the documents listed 39 line items that were taken from the nearly 58-bedroom property, including at least two labeled "binder of photos," one listed as a "potential presidential record," one handwritten note, and various miscellaneous items listed as confidential, top secret or secret.
Hours before the documents were unsealed, the Wall Street Journal reported federal agents recovered nearly a dozen boxes of classified documents – some of which contained alleged top-secret information – as well as binders, at least one handwritten note and other boxes of items from the residence. A report from The Washington Post on Thursday night said that among the items FBI agents were searching for were classified documents related to nuclear weapons, citing sources familiar with the probe.
The search warrant was unsealed after Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced that the Department of Justice would move to allow the public release of the documents, citing "substantial public interest."
Trump's legal team was given until 3 p.m. EST on Friday to respond and say whether the former president objected to the motion to unseal the documents – but Trump, in a post shared to Truth Social, said he would not block the move, and called on authorities to "Release the Documents Now!"
Ahead of the release on Friday, Trump put out a statement baselessly claiming that the material was "all declassified" and that federal agents "didn't need to 'seize' anything" and that "they could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago."
While incumbent presidents generally 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. And even an incumbent’s powers to declassify may be limited regarding secrets dealing with nuclear weapons programs, covert operations and operatives, and some data shared with allies.
Trump kept possession of the documents despite multiple requests from agencies, including the National Archives, to turn over presidential records in accordance with federal law.
Trump also repeated a false claim about former President Barack Obama taking millions of documents, some of which were unclassified, with him to Chicago, which the National Archives and Records Administration debunked in a statement to Spectrum News on Friday.
The agency said that it "assumed legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records" when he left office in 2017, "in accordance with the Presidential Records Act." The National Archives moved "30 million pages of unclassified records" to one of their facilities in the Chicago area, while classified records are kept at a NARA facility in the Washington, D.C., area.
"As required by the PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration," the statement concludes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read the unsealed search warrant below: