FBI search of Mar-a-Lago

Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida

On August 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida, residence of former U.S. president Donald Trump. The search was based on a search warrant, which originated from a complaint by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), authorized by Merrick Garland, the United States Attorney General, and approved by magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart. The order, which was unsealed a few days after the search, showed that the FBI obtained the search warrant as part of an investigation into Trump, relating to three federal criminal statutes: removal or destruction of government records; destroying or concealing records "with the intent to impede, obstruct or influence" federal government activity; and violations of the Espionage Act regarding unauthorized retention of national defense information.

Agents seized 11 sets of classified documents: one set at the highest classification level, "Top Secret/SCI" (sensitive compartmented information); four sets at the "Top Secret" level; three sets at the "Secret" level; and three sets at the "Confidential" level. According to reporting by The New York Times, more than 300 classified CIA, FBI, and NSA documents on topics of national security interests were recovered since January 2022, and Trump had gone through the boxes at the end of 2021.

Background

Handling, storage, and disposition of U.S. government records

See also: Donald Trump § Post-presidential investigations

The Presidential Records Act (44 U.S.C. ch. 22) establishes that presidential records belong to the United States and must be surrendered to the Archivist of the United States at the end of a president's term of office (or second term of office, if consecutive). Unauthorized removal and retention of classified information of the United States government is a criminal offense under U.S. federal law; it has been a felony since the enactment of the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in January 2018 and increased the maximum term of imprisonment for this offense from one year to five years.

Criminal laws listed on search warrant

The search warrant, and the affidavit which supported it, listed three federal criminal statutes as the basis of the investigation: "18 U.S.C. §§ 793, 2071, [and] 1519."

Section 793 of Title 18 of the United States Code, enacted as part of the Espionage Act of 1917, makes the unauthorized retention or disclosure of documents related to national defense, which could be used to harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary, a crime. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison. The Espionage Act was passed before the development of the modern classification system of the United States government, and thus does not refer to the classification status of the documents; unclassified "national defense information" would still be covered under the Espionage Act.

Section 2071 of Title 18 criminalizes the theft or destruction of government records, regardless of their relevance to national security. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison.

Section 1519 of Title 18, enacted as part of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, criminalizes the act of destroying or concealing documents or records, regardless of their relevance to national security, "with the intent to impede, obstruct or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter" within the jurisdiction of any federal department or agency. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison.

Classified material

See also: Classified information in the United States

The official policy on the handling of classified material is set in Executive Order 13526 issued by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Trump's handling of U.S. government records during his term in office

See also: Donald Trump's disclosures of classified information

During his term in office, Trump's attitude toward and handling of classified information had worried U.S. federal intelligence officials. His behavior led to mistrust in intelligence and law enforcement agencies who were also alarmed by Trump's mixing with guests during his frequent trips to Mar-a-Lago, viewing the practice as "ripe to be exploited by a foreign spy service eager for access to the epicenter of American power". In 2021, Trump reportedly told close associates that he regarded some presidential documents, such as the correspondence with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, to be his personal property.

President Joe Biden barred Trump from receiving the courtesy intelligence briefings traditionally given to former presidents, citing Trump's "erratic behavior".

Destruction of presidential records

Trump regularly shredded "both sensitive and mundane" papers while at the White House, at Mar-a-Lago, and on Air Force One, despite repeated admonishments from at least two of his chiefs of staff and from White House counsel. His aides had developed special practices and protocols early in his presidency to retrieve the piles of torn paper and attempt to tape documents back together with the help of staffers from the Office of the Staff Secretary or the Oval Office Operations team. Not all materials were recovered; Trump White House staffers frequently used "burn bags" to destroy documents. On at least two occasions, Trump allegedly flushed documents down the toilet at the White House residence.

Departure from office

Trump's presidential term ended at noon on January 20, 2021. His departure from the White House was "rushed and chaotic". In the last weeks of the Trump presidency, White House staff quit and aides resigned, leaving a small number of assistants in place who would have been able to properly preserve records. A former Trump aide said they were "30 days behind what a typical administration would be". White House staff secretary Derek Lyons had attempted to maintain an orderly preservation of records in the West Wing, but he departed the administration in late December, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump took little interest in doing so, leaving the task to others. The Wall Street Journal quoted a former aide as saying: "If you only start packing with two days left to go, you're just running low on time. And if he's the one just throwing things in boxes, who knows what could happen?"

The day before he left office, Trump designated seven senior Trump administration officials, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone, and Deputy White House Counsel Patrick F. Philbin, "as his representatives to handle all future requests for presidential records". On June 19, 2022, Trump notified NARA that he had made Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official, and journalist John Solomon "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration".

Events leading to the search

Trump reportedly went through the boxes at Mar-a-Lago at the end of 2021. NARA recovered some of these boxes in January 2022 and discovered that they included documents from the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security Agency on a variety of topics of national security interest. The Department of Justice began an investigation and convened a grand jury in April 2022. Including the January 2022 recovery by NARA after negotiation, the June 2022 handover to the Justice Department by Trump aides under subpoena, and the August 2022 search by the FBI with a search warrant, the government obtained over 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago.

NARA actions to retrieve presidential records from Mar-a-Lago

By May 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the federal agency that preserves government records, had realized that presidential documents were missing, including Trump's correspondence with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as well as the altered Hurricane Dorian map, and contacted Trump's representatives. On May 6, NARA emailed Trump's lawyers with the request for their "immediate assistance" to return the "roughly two dozen" boxes that had still been in Trump's White House residence in the final days of his presidency. Cipollone had advised at the time that they had to be transferred to NARA but they were sent to Florida instead. In June 2021, NARA instructed a former lawyer in Trump's White House counsel's office to return Trump's correspondence with Kim Jong Un using FedEx. NARA negotiated with Trump's lawyers throughout 2021, seeking the return of the material.

In January 2022, NARA retrieved 15 boxes of documents, gifts, and other government property from Mar-a-Lago that should have been transferred to NARA at the end of Trump's term.

From these 15 boxes, archivists and federal agents determined that 184 unique documents (totaling 700 pages) had classification markings, of which 25 documents were marked "top secret", 92 "secret" and 67 "confidential". This material included:

• "sensitive national security information", including signals intelligence and the Kim letters
• documents governed by special access programs (SAP), a type of protocol reserved for extremely sensitive U.S. operations conducted abroad, intended to significantly limit access to the information
• documents marked as "HCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI"

The documents were stored in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) while DOJ officials considered how to proceed.

FBI/DOJ launches criminal investigation and issues subpoenas

Letter written on May 10, 2022, by Debra Steidel Wall, Acting Archivist of the United States, to M. Evan Corcoran, attorney for Donald J. Trump

On February 9, 2022, the National Archives sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Following an initial review, the DOJ opened a criminal investigation and initiated a grand jury process in April 2022. The same month, the DOJ instructed NARA not to share further details about the materials recovered from Mar-a-Lago with the House Oversight Committee, indicating that the FBI had opened a criminal investigation. The FBI interviewed Trump administration officials and aides at Mar-a-Lago about the handling of presidential records, including former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his former deputy Patrick Philbin.

Tom Fitton, president of activist group Judicial Watch, advised Trump in February 2022 not to give any more records to NARA. As justification, Fitton cited a 2012 case in which a federal judge said that NARA had no authority to designate materials as “presidential records” nor did it have the right to seize materials. That case concerned audio tapes of historian Taylor Branch privately interviewing his friend, Bill Clinton, during Clinton's presidency. Though NARA had previously said the tapes were private property, Judicial Watch demanded NARA seize the tapes and hand them over to Judicial Watch. The judge dismissed the lawsuit.

On April 12, 2022, NARA said it would let the FBI access the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. Trump's lawyers sought to delay this outcome. On May 10, Debra Steidel Wall, the acting Archivist of the United States, wrote Trump's attorney M. Evan Corcoran to reiterate that Trump had taken hundreds of pages of classified materials with him, including highly classified Special Access Programs materials, and that their extended negotiations over alleged executive privilege was delaying investigations and threat assessments already underway. She said that based on legal counsel she had decided not to honor their request for further delays. An ally of Trump made the letter public on August 22.

The DOJ issued a grand jury subpoena to the National Archives for access to the classified documents on May 12. The DOJ issued another subpoena to Trump seeking further documents believed to be in his possession. Trump's advisers repeatedly urged him to fully comply with the subpoena, despite his desire to keep holding onto some documents.

Investigators from the DOJ and the FBI met with Trump's attorneys at Mar-a-Lago on June 3 seeking more information about the improper removal of classified material. The FBI served Trump's attorneys with the subpoena and removed the requested documents. At this point, the investigators were tipped about the possibility of more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, according to The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, The Guardian reported the DOJ grew concerned about the presence of classified materials still at Mar-a-Lago through its interactions with Trump's lawyers. When agents observed the room where the documents were being stored, "someone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club" beyond the boxes Trump surrendered to NARA. According to Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, an informant told the FBI where Trump was keeping classified documents.

After the June 3 meeting, one of Trump's attorneys falsely asserted in a written declaration to the DOJ that all classified material had been returned, according to The New York Times, which said they had verified the information with four sources. Two months later, after the falsehood came to light, The Times reported that the signed declaration possibly indicated that Trump's legal team had not been forthright with federal investigators about the material.

On June 8, the FBI told Trump's team to better secure the storage area, so Trump aides added a padlock to the room. On June 22, the FBI subpoenaed the Trump Organization for surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago, including views from outside the storage room. The footage showed that boxes had been moved in and out of the room after one instance when the Justice Department had been in contact with Trump's representatives.

FBI/DOJ obtains search warrant from federal court

Federal agents established probable cause to obtain a search warrant against Trump because, while he had turned over some classified documents to federal authorities, agents suspected he was unlawfully withholding other classified information. The warrant was obtained by the Justice Department's National Security Division at the request of NARA to collect material that Trump had potentially not turned over to NARA. The New York Times reported: "Two people briefed on the classified documents that investigators believe remained at Mar-a-Lago indicated that they were so sensitive in nature, and related to national security, that the Justice Department had to act." However, Attorney General Merrick Garland had contemplated for weeks whether to approve the application for the search warrant, after many meetings between senior DOJ and FBI officials.

The search warrant showed that the FBI was investigating Trump for suspected violations of three federal laws – Title 18, Section 793 (a part of the Espionage Act of 1917); Title 18, Section 1519 (part of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act); and Title 18, Section 2071. Trump had not been charged with any crime. If charged and convicted under the third law, Trump would be "disqualified from holding any office under the United States". However, a number of legal scholars have questioned the constitutionality of that provision in the statute.

Federal magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida approved the warrant on August 5, 2022. Reviewing and approving search warrants is a typical duty of federal magistrate judges. Legal experts noted that, given the high profile of the operation, the application for a search warrant (granted on probable cause) would have been scrupulously scrutinized by federal authorities. Will Hurd, a former CIA agent and former Republican congressman, said: "Trump and his lawyers admitted to and then handed over presidential documents improperly taken from and stored outside the White House. Of course the FBI had probable cause to go in looking for more."

Search of Mar-a-Lago

On August 8, 2022, at 9 a.m., FBI agents searched Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago for the material specified in a warrant, including classified material. The material pertained to special access programs according to The New York Times and – according to The Washington Post – nuclear weapons. The FBI notified the Secret Service of the search a few hours in advance. The Secret Service facilitated the FBI's access to Mar-a-Lago, but did not participate in the search.

Trump's son Eric Trump said on Fox News that he received a call about the search and informed his father shortly thereafter. Two of Trump's lawyers, Christina Bobb and Lindsey Halligan, were present for the search but were not allowed inside. Trump and his family watched most of the FBI search from New York remotely via a live video feed transmitted from Mar-a-Lago's system of security cameras. Trump and his attorneys refused the FBI's requests to turn off the cameras. Eric Trump later said that his family would release the footage "at the right time".

FBI agents conducted the search using "taint teams" to ensure that no privileged correspondence between Trump and his lawyers were removed. The New York Times reported the FBI agents "carried out the search in a relatively low-key manner" and intentionally did not wear the usual navy-blue agency jackets. FBI agents searched a storage unit in the basement, where they broke through the newly installed padlock. They further searched Trump's second-floor office in the main house, where they opened a "hotel-style" safe containing "nothing of consequence"; and finally Trump's residence. Classified documents were also recovered from unsecured locations, and were found outside of the locked storage room. In accordance with the usual procedure for executing search warrants, the FBI provided Trump's counsel with a copy of the warrant and a detailed three-page manifest, called a property receipt, which listed the inventory of seized records. The FBI agents left the property around 6:30 p.m. with the boxes.

Peter Schorsch, the publisher of FloridaPolitics.com, was the first to report on the event. Trump also publicly acknowledged the search.

The FBI afterwards issued another subpoena for surveillance video from Mar-a-Lago for the weeks leading up to the search, suggesting Trump may still be withholding government documents.

Seized materials

FBI agents seized 26 boxes from the club, including 11 sets of classified government materials, of which four sets were classified as top secret, three sets were classified as secret, and three sets were classified as confidential. One set was at the highest classification level: "top secret/SCI" (meaning top secret/sensitive compartmented information). The seized material included binders, photographs, and handwritten notes. Some documents were related to Trump's pardon of his ally Roger Stone and some were related to the president of France. The property receipt, signed by Trump's attorney Christina Bobb at 6:19 p.m. at the end of the search, showed that Trump possessed documents marked "TS/SCI" and another item labeled "Info re: President of France".

On August 14, Trump demanded that the documents recovered by the FBI be returned to him; he claimed that some of them were covered by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. Three passports belonging to Trump, one of them expired, were taken during the search and returned to him on August 15.

Release of search warrant documents

Release of search warrant and property receipt

The August 12, 2022, order to unseal along with the unsealed search and seizure warrant, and property receipt.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announcing the DOJ motion to unseal the search warrant.

In keeping with longstanding DOJ reticence to comment on ongoing investigations, as well as the tight limits Attorney General Merrick Garland placed on such public statements, the government did not initially comment on the search.

While the DOJ remained silent, a person close to Trump contacted a DOJ official to send a message from Trump to Garland. Trump wanted Garland to know that people around the country were angered by the search and what Trump could do to "reduce the heat".

On August 11, however, the DOJ filed a motion in court to unseal the search warrant and property receipt, unless Trump objected to making them public. On the same day, Garland held a press conference, in which he said that the department had filed a motion to unseal the warrant and the property receipt "in light of the former president's public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances, and the substantial public interest in this matter", and that he had personally approved the decision to seek the search warrant. Garland also said that "upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly, without fear or favor" and criticized "recent unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors".

Trump later said on social media that he supported the release of the warrant and related documents, though he declined to release them himself, and his legal team agreed that the court should release them. The search warrant and property receipt were unsealed (made publicly available) on the afternoon of August 12, with the signatures of two FBI agents redacted.

Motions to release search warrant affidavit

Many newspapers and media organizations motioned to unseal the probable-cause affidavit which had been signed by the judge on August 5 and submitted in support of the search warrant application.

In court filings, DOJ opposed the affidavit's release, writing that "this investigation implicates highly classified materials" and that disclosure would compromise the integrity of the criminal investigation and the cooperation of witnesses in the matter and "other high-profile investigations"; the DOJ also cited "widely reported threats made against law enforcement personnel in the wake of the August 8 search". The DOJ said that if the magistrate judge ordered the release of the affidavit, the necessary redactions would render the unsealed text "devoid of any meaningful context", saying the "redacted version would not serve any public interest". The DOJ requested the magistrate to instead unseal other information, including a cover sheet, the DOJ's August 5 motion to seal the warrant and the judge's sealing order of the same day.

On August 18, the federal magistrate judge held a hearing to discuss requests to unseal investigators' probable cause affidavit. Jay Bratt, head of the DOJ's counterintelligence division, said the investigation was in its "early stages". He argued that releasing the affidavit could reveal investigative techniques, jeopardize the identities of "several witnesses" from their specific accounts of events, as well as expose federal agents to threats. Bratt revealed that the affidavit contained "substantial grand jury information", including details about how "evidence of obstruction" would be found at Mar-a-Lago. Several media organizations asked the judge to unseal it with the necessary redactions, citing the public interest. The judge signalled that he planned to unseal portions of the affidavit and gave the DOJ a week to submit proposed redactions. Trump on social media repeatedly called for the release of the unredacted affidavit but his lawyers did not file a motion asking the court to do so.

Also on August 18, the magistrate judge unsealed several procedural documents related to the warrant affidavit, including the criminal cover sheet, a redacted copy of the August 5 warrant application, the DOJ's original motion to seal warrant documents, and the order granting the sealing request. The documents showed that the FBI was specifically investigating whether there was "willful retention of national defense information", concealment or removal of government records, and obstruction of a federal investigation.

In a 13-page order, released on August 22, the judge said he "carefully reviewed" the affidavit before approving the search warrant and was "satisfied that the facts sworn by the affiant are reliable." He said that the DOJ had shown a "compelling interest that overrides any public interest" in fully unsealing the affidavit. He indicated that he might agree with the DOJ that the necessary redactions would render the document useless. He rejected the DOJ's argument that partially unsealing the affidavit would set a dangerous precedent, highlighting the significance of this case. He requested the DOJ to submit proposed redactions and provide additional evidence and arguments within a week.

On August 25, the Justice Department submitted a legal brief proposing redactions to the affidavit. The brief was under seal, and multiple media companies requested the judge to unseal it, as well as direct the DOJ to make public any other sealed documents. The judge soon agreed to the proposed redactions and ordered the DOJ to release the redacted affidavit the following day. The judge's decision to release the affidavit was seen as surprising, because probable-cause affidavits are typically kept under seal (i.e., not made public) before charges are filed.

Release of redacted search warrant affidavit

The redacted search warrant affidavit, released on August 26, 2022.

The redacted search warrant affidavit, along with a redacted copy of the legal brief that justified redactions to the affidavit, were unsealed and made public on August 26. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN released annotated versions of the search warrant affidavit as well.

The legal brief had argued that the DOJ's proposed redactions were necessary to protect the identities of cooperating witnesses and FBI agents who might otherwise be exposed to threats and retaliation, as well as to prevent obstruction of the investigation, protect privacy interests, protect grand jury information, and maintain the safety of law enforcement personnel.

The affidavit listed four main goals of the FBI investigation:

1. To "determine how the documents with classification markings and records were removed from the White House (or any other authorized location(s) for the storage of classified materials) and came to be stored at [Mar-a-Lago]";
2. To "determine whether the storage location(s) at [Mar-a-Lago] were authorized locations for the storage of classified information";
3. To "determine whether any additional classified documents or records may have been stored in an unauthorized location at [Mar-a-Lago] or another unknown location, and whether they remain at any such location";
4. And to "identify any person(s) who may have removed or retained classified information without authorization and/or in an unauthorized space."

The FBI said there was "probable cause to believe" that classified national security materials were improperly transferred to "unauthorized" locations at Mar-a-Lago, that materials relating to national defense or presidential records "subject to record retention requirements" still remained at Mar-a-Lago, and that "evidence of obstruction" would be found at Mar-a-Lago.

The FBI noted that several of the seized documents contained Trump’s “handwritten notes" and were "unfoldered, intermixed with other records, and otherwise unproperly [sic] identified.”

The FBI attached to the affidavit a May 25 letter to the DOJ from Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran. In the letter, Corcoran argued against proceeding with a criminal investigation, saying that presidents have the “absolute authority” to declassify documents, although he did not clarify whether Trump had done so.

Motion for special master

On August 22, Trump filed a motion in federal court asking for the appointment of a special master to independently review the seized evidence for documents not covered by the warrant or containing potentially privileged information. He also asked that investigators be blocked from continuing their review in the meantime and that the Justice Department provide a more detailed property receipt than the inventory left at Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department announced that they would file their response in court. Trump's lawsuit was assigned to district judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. On August 23, she ordered Trump's legal team to refine their legal arguments for a special master, asking for more detail regarding "the asserted basis for the exercise of this Court's jurisdiction ... the precise relief sought, including any request for injunctive relief ... [and] the effect, if any, of the proceeding before [Judge Reinhart]", among other items.

Trump responded on August 26, asserting that the district judge had jurisdiction to appoint a special master. His court filing argued that the redacted affidavit "raise[d] more questions than answers" and "provides almost no information ... to understand why the raid took place, or what was taken from his home". Trump suggested that the search was improper because the Presidential Records Act is not criminally enforceable. Although Trump no longer holds office, he cited a 1991 decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals which ruled that a sitting president has "virtually complete control" over his records. Trump did not request immediate action from the judge or clarify what the special master should filter out. Trump's brief did not suggest he had any "standing order" to declassify materials, a defense he had initially proposed.

On August 27, Judge Cannon ordered that a hearing would take place on September 1, providing a "notice of [the court's] preliminary intent to appoint a special master". The Department of Justice was ordered to respond to Trump's filing by August 30, as well as file a "more detailed Receipt for Property specifying all property seized pursuant to the search warrant" and "a particularized notice indicating the status of [the DoJ's] review of the seized property, including any filter review conducted by the privilege review team and any dissemination of materials beyond the privilege review team", both under seal; Trump's lawyers must respond to that filing on August 31.

Reactions

Congressional inquiries

NARA's revaluation of presidential records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago raised concern within Congress; the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, chaired by U.S. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, began an investigation. In a February 24 letter to NARA, Maloney wrote, "I am deeply concerned that former President Trump may have violated the law through his intentional efforts to remove and destroy records that belong to the American people." She requested the National Archives to provide documents about discussions among top Trump advisers about preserving and storing White House records. Maloney and Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, later sent a letter to Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence (DNI) requesting a classified congressional briefing and a damage assessment. Haines responded that the DOJ and Intelligence Community were conducting a classification review of materials taken to Mar-a-Lago and a damage assessment of the potential risk to national security.

House Republicans sent letters to FBI Director Wray, Garland, and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain requesting documents relating to the search; and separately to Wray relating to his personal use of FBI aircraft.

Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a private letter to Garland and Haines requesting that the DOJ and the Office of the DNI provide the committee with the classified documents seized and a damage assessment of potential risks to national security. According to an August 26 letter from Haines, a classification review and damage assessment inquiry is ongoing.

The eight congressional leaders who are briefed on classified intelligence matters, colloquially known as the Gang of Eight, have asked the Biden administration for access to the seized documents.

White House

The White House said that President Biden and White House officials were not aware of the search until it was reported on the news. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said "those investigations should be free from political influence" and did not comment on the search itself except that the independent Department of Justice was carrying out the investigation.

On August 17, the White House, in a statement to CNN, condemned calls from some members of the Republican Party to "defund the FBI".

White House officials were privately concerned over the classified material stored in Mar-a-Lago, including whether it could put at risk the sources and methods of the US intelligence community. On August 26, Biden mocked Trump for saying he had declassified all of the material he took with him to Mar-a-Lago and said he would let the DOJ make a determination on the risk to national security.

Trump, his family, and his attorneys

Following the search, Trump and his attorneys made a variety of statements relating to the search and the F.B.I. investigation; these statements have been criticized as "shifting" over time and "often contradictory and unsupported". Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman, writing for The New York Times, said that the former President's response "follow[s] a familiar playbook" which "[h]e has used ... over decades", including during the investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia and during his first impeachment trial. They also said that Trump's statements did not explain why he kept the documents after the government began investigating him. In an August 18 Fox News appearance, Trump lawyer Christina Bobb said that the basement was protected by "security" and was accessible by "only certain members of staff".

According to a report from The Washington Post, Trump has been struggling since the day of the search to assemble an experienced legal defense team, with many of Trump's former lawyers declining to take part in a defense in this case. Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich stated that Trump's lead counsel had "litigated some of the most complex cases in American history" and were "some of the strongest attorneys in the country".

According to a report for The Washington Post by Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf, Trump's Save America PAC (political action committee) sent out more than 100 emails in the days following the search asking for donations, raising the daily takings from an average of $200,000–$300,000 per day to more than $1,000,000 for at least two days. The emails claimed that former president Trump was being politically persecuted. In July, Save America paid almost $1,000,000 to civil and criminal lawyers representing Trump and the Trump Organization in lawsuits.

After the release of the redacted affidavit, Trump called the claims that he had nuclear weapons documents "a total public relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ." He noted that it did not confirm whether he kept nuclear weapons files at Mar-a-Lago.

Claims of political motivation, planted evidence, and Obama precedent

Trump likened the search to the 1970s Watergate scandal. He baselessly alleged that it was politically motivated to stop him from running for president in 2024, and a "politically motivated move" by the Biden administration. Trump's spokesman Taylor Budowich made similar claims.

On August 11, Trump baselessly claimed that the FBI might have doctored evidence to support its search warrant and might have planted incriminating materials and recording devices at Mar-a-Lago. Trump's allies echoed these conspiracist claims. On August 12, he claimed that his lawyers had been fully cooperating with federal investigators prior to the search: "The government could have had whatever they wanted, if we had it".

On August 12, Trump falsely claimed that former president Barack Obama had taken "33 million pages of documents, much of them classified" to Chicago; the falsehoods were amplified by conservative commentators. NARA responded that they had taken "exclusive legal and physical custody" of Obama's records when he left office in 2017, and that Obama had "no control over where and how" NARA stored the records, with NARA "exclusively" maintaining around 30 million pages of unclassified Obama records near Chicago, while classified Obama records were maintained by NARA in its Washington, D.C facility.

After The Washington Post reported that nuclear documents were being sought in the search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump said on August 12: "Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax". Trump also claimed that former president Obama had retained "lots" of nuclear documents, however, the National Archives refutes that accusation.

Claims of declassifying all documents

On August 12, Trump said that the documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago were "all declassified" before he left office, without providing further details. Patel stated in May that Trump had deemed as declassified the boxes he returned to the National Archives shortly before leaving office, but "White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings". Trump's office stated that he frequently took classified documents to his residence and that he had issued a standing order that all such documents removed that way "were deemed to be declassified".

Former Trump administration officials said they never heard of such an order issued by Trump, and labeled the claim false. John Bolton, who was Trump's national security advisor, said that Trump's claim to have a "standing order" declassifying all documents that went to his residences was "almost certainly a lie". Bolton said he never heard of such an order before, during, or after his tenure as national security advisor. Bolton said that "When somebody begins to concoct lies like this, it shows a real level of desperation." Glenn S. Gerstell, who served as the general counsel for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, said that the notion that documents that Trump took to his residences were automatically declassified, without any logging of the nature of the information or notifications to the agencies that used the information, was "preposterous". Leon Panetta, the former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA under the Obama administration, similarly said Trump's claims of having the power to instantly declassify documents are "pretty much BS", saying there is a process involved for declassifying material that requires various agencies to authorize the declassification. "There is nothing that I'm aware of that indicates that a formal step was taken by this president to, in fact, declassify anything," Panetta said.

Steven Aftergood, a critic of U.S. government secrecy policy, referenced the Plame affair where Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, claimed to have received a direct but unrecorded disclosure order from President George W. Bush and Cheney to leak classified information to reporters. Libby was ultimately not charged for releasing classified information. Aftergood said the case "highlights the fact that the president purports to, or does, stand outside of the classification system".

Trump allies and supporters

On the day of the search, a group of about two dozen Trump supporters gathered in protest in front of Mar-a-Lago; others held protests in front of FBI offices in Phoenix, Arizona, and Washington D.C. Over the next few days, Trump supporters continued to demonstrate outside Mar-a-Lago, and at several pickets outside a number of FBI field offices in various states. A small group of armed Trump supporters protested outside the FBI office in Phoenix.

CBS News reporter Robert Costa reported that within Trump's circle, "Some allies are urging him to speed up his decision on 2024 in the wake of this, that no one in [the] GOP will challenge him now... others are telling him to stay cool, wait."

Trump allies in Congress and in right-wing media spread a wide variety of misinformation and baseless conspiracy theories: that the FBI may have planted evidence; that the FBI search aimed to stop Trump from exposing criminals in government; that the FBI conducted a "military occupation" of Mar-a-lago; that the FBI entered Mar-a-lago "unannounced" and was "taking whatever they want for themselves"; and that some FBI agents went "rogue".

Many of Trump's allies, including Steve Bannon, urged Trump to publicly release some of the surveillance footage of the search or use it in political campaign ads. Others cautioned him that releasing the tapes could backfire by revealing the sheer volume of classified information removed from his residence and countering some of his unsupported claims. The footage could further expose the identities of FBI agents videotaped and subject them to further threats and harassment.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, while guest hosting Tucker Carlson Tonight, showed a doctored photo depicting the federal magistrate judge who approved the warrant together with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell; Kilmeade later described the fake photo as "a meme" shared "in jest".

The FBI search ignited apocalyptic, violent rhetoric among Trump supporters, including members of the far-right, on media including Fox News, Newsmax, PJ Media, the Blaze and right-wing talk radio. Talk of civil war and violence spiked online among far-right users on platforms such as Truth Social, Gab, Telegram and Twitter, including from conservative commentator Steven Crowder and white supremacist commentator Nick Fuentes. The New York Young Republican Club blamed the search on "internationalist forces and their allies intent on undermining the foundation of our Republic". Experts on political violence said that the extremist rhetoric creates a dangerous atmosphere and heightens the risk of violent acts.

Threats against government officials

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray denounced online threats against federal agents and DOJ employees. Wray said the FBI would "stay vigilant and adjust our security posture accordingly" given a surge of threats to FBI employees and property following the search of Mar-a-Lago. The names of the two FBI agents who signed the warrant paperwork were redacted in the official court-released documents; the right-wing outlet Breitbart published leaked versions of the documents that revealed the agents' names, exposing them to harassment.

The federal magistrate judge who approved the search was the target of antisemitic vitriol, misinformation, and threats on sites such as 4chan; due to online threats against him, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida removed information about the magistrate from its online directory for his protection. The synagogue he attended had also received threats and is under additional security.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint bulletin warning of an "unprecedented" increase in threats and acts of violence against federal law enforcement officials, including "calls for the targeted killing of judicial, law enforcement, and government officials associated with the Palm Beach search, including the federal judge who approved the Palm Beach search warrant". Multiple possible targets of violence had their personal information posted online. The bulletin noted a threat to place a dirty bomb in front of FBI Headquarters.

A man in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, was charged in US District Court with making online threats against FBI agents on the Gab social networking site.

Luis Miguel, a Florida Republican candidate, was banned from Twitter after he called for the killing of federal agents.

On August 19, lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee contacted social media companies and requested information about recent threats made against law enforcement officials by users of their platforms. Letters sent by lawmakers specifically cited threats published on Truth Social, which has seen a significant increase in app downloads following the Mar-a-Lago search. The letter expressed concern because "reckless statements by the former president and Republican Members of Congress have unleashed a flood of violent threats on social media" and they urged platforms to take immediate, concrete action to limit incitement of violence against law enforcement agencies.

FBI field office attack

Main article: Cincinnati FBI field office attack

Ricky Shiffer, a 42-year-old Trump supporter wearing body armor and armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a nail gun, attempted to breach the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 11 and died in a subsequent confrontation with police officers. He had taken part in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and was one of the most prolific posters on Trump's social media platform Truth Social, where he posted on about his desire to kill FBI agents after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. Shiffer had engaged in violent extremist rhetoric on social media for years, and the FBI received a tip about him in May 2022.

Republican elected officials and candidates

The Republican National Committee, as well as most Republicans, responded to the FBI search by attacking the FBI and depicting Trump as a victim and political martyr. Republicans said that the search made the U.S. into a "third-world country" or "banana republic", although democracies such as France, South Korea, and Israel have all investigated and prosecuted former leaders for criminal offenses. Many Republicans vowed to investigate the DOJ if the party retook control of Congress in the November 2022 elections. There is no evidence of improper conduct by federal investigators, and no evidence that the search was politically motivated.

Former Vice President Mike Pence stated that the search undermined public confidence in the system of justice, noting, "No former President of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history." Several other Republican politicians, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, U.S. Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida, and former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the search. In a tweet, House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy said the Justice Department "has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization" and said: "When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar." Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called for the FBI to be defunded. Senator Rand Paul called for the Espionage Act to be repealed. Anthony Sabatini, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives called for the state to "sever all ties with DOJ immediately" and called for FBI agents to be "arrested upon sight".

Some Republicans took a more restrained tone upon reports that the documents seized were highly classified, but nonetheless questioned the search. Multiple Republicans called on the DOJ and FBI to release or share to Congress documents surrounding the search, particularly the affidavit used as the basis of the warrant. Mike Turner, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that he was "very concerned about the method that was used in raiding Mar-a-Lago"; Brian Fitzpatrick questioned whether "the law is being enforced equally" and with "parity".

Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, the top Republican on the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, criticized her party's response to the federal investigation of Trump, writing, "I have been ashamed to hear members of my party attacking the integrity of the FBI agents involved with the recent Mar-a-Lago search. These are sickening comments that put the lives of patriotic public servants at risk."

Congressional Democrats

House Democrats praised the search as a step toward accountability for Trump. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in an interview after the search, "We believe in the rule of law. That's what our country is about. And no person is above the law. Not even the president of the United States. Not even a former president of the United States." Senate Democrats offered more reserved reactions; in the immediate aftermath of the search, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would "withhold comment until we know more".

Scholars and former officials

Following the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Reuters and Al Jazeera cited scholars and former officials, who said the way Trump used the residence presented a highly unique security "nightmare". Commenting on a 2017 North Korea strategy meeting between Trump and Shinzo Abe which was surrounded by guests, national security lawyer Mark Zaid stated, "What we saw was Trump be so lax in security that he was having a sensitive meeting regarding a potential war topic where non-U.S. government personnel could observe and photograph."

Experts considered Trump "the perfect profile of a security risk: He was like a disgruntled former employee, with access to sensitive government secrets, dead set on tearing down what he believed was a deep state out to get him". Columbia University political scientist David Rothkopf viewed the Mar-a-Lago search as a reminder that Trump "was, and is, a national security risk unlike any the United States has ever faced."

Mary McCord, a former Department of Justice official, stated: "Clearly they thought it was very serious to get these materials back into secured space. Even just retention of highly classified documents in improper storage – particularly given Mar-a-Lago, the foreign visitors there and others who might have connections with foreign governments and foreign agents – creates a significant national security threat."

Trump's former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, said that Trump has a long track record of disregarding rules for handling sensitive documents; that Trump "didn't believe in the classification system"; and that Trump held U.S. intelligence in disdain. Bill Barr, who served as U.S. attorney general during the George H. W. Bush administration and again during the Trump administration, said it would be "hard to explain" why Trump had the documents. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael Sallah of the Pittsburg Post-Dispatch discovered that a Ukrainian-born Russian speaker using a fake name who claimed to be a Rothschild family heiress had frequented the residence over a year's time, even posing there for photos with Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham. Two years earlier a Chinese woman with false passports, possessing a thumb drive containing malware, was arrested attending a function there.

Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton said "almost nothing would surprise me about what's in the documents at Mar-a-Lago". Bolton recalled that although Trump usually did not read the President's Daily Brief, he would sometimes ask his briefers "to keep the highly classified visual aids, pictures, charts and graphs" that were prepared for him, and that Trump sometimes refused to return these materials when asked by his briefers to do so.

Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and former associate dean at Yale Law School, stated that Trump's acknowledgment that the documents seized were covered or potentially covered by executive privilege indicated that he had kept presidential records that he was not authorized to have under 18 USC 2071. She stated: "And so it's not clear that executive privilege would even be relevant to the particular crime he's being investigated for and yet in this filing, he basically admits that he is in possession of them, which is what the government is trying to establish".

See also

• Donald Trump's disclosures of classified information
• January 6 United States Capitol attack
• Hillary Clinton email controversy

External links

• "Donald Trump Is Not Above The Law" (The New York Times; August 26, 2022)
• "Inside the 20-Month Fight to Get Trump to Return Presidential Material" (The New York Times; August 26, 2022)

Released documents

• Search Warrant – Dkt. 17, filed August 11, 2022; contains: redacted search warrant; Appendix A to the affidavit (which describes the location of the search); Appendix B to the affidavit (which describes the focus of the search warrant); and the "Receipt for Property", listing the items seized
• Affidavit that supports the search – Dkt. 102-1, filed August 26, 2022; contains redacted affidavit, memorandum of law in support of redactions, and table of redactions and justifications