FBI search of Mar-a-Lago

Handling, storage, and disposition of U.S. government records The Presidential Records Act () 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 accompanying affidavit listed three federal criminal statutes as the basis of the investigation: "18 U.S.C. §§ , , [and] ". The Sections cited are: • § 793, 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 Code of Federal Regulations contains rules for classified material as . Generally, the president and the United States National Security Council set information security policy such as the sharing and classification of information. The day-to-day oversight of the government-wide classification system is handled by the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), a component of the National Archives. Declassification, presidential powers and regulations Since the 1988 Supreme Court decision in Department of the Navy v. Egan, there is consensus that a sitting president has broad Constitutional powers to classify (and declassify) information. However, there are procedures for doing so. Following former President Trump's claims that the documents found at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified, the Congressional Research Service issued a policy paper in August 2022 highlighting relevant regulations: per , the declassification process requires markings "uniformly and conspicuously applied to leave no doubt about the declassified status of the information and who authorized the declassification". Protocols for loss or compromise of classified material Federal regulations require that "any person who has knowledge that classified information has been or may have been lost, possibly compromised or disclosed to an unauthorized person(s) shall immediately report the circumstances to an official designated for this purpose." Regulations also require notification of the Director of the ISOO if the specific classified information could attract "significant public attention", if the information in question is voluminous, or if a key vulnerability has been exposed. The Department of Justice is also to be consulted if criminality is suspected. == Events leading to the search ==

When Trump left the White House, he brought government documents with him. "From January through March 15, 2021," the grand jury alleged, "some of Trump's boxes were stored in The Mar-a-Lago Club's White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. Trump's boxes were for a time stacked on the ballroom's stage". In March, they were moved to a "business center". In April, they were moved to a "bathroom and shower" in the Lake Room. NARA actions to retrieve presidential records from Mar-a-Lago In February 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the federal agency that preserves government records, asked Trump to return presidential documents. By May 2021, NARA realized they were missing the correspondence sent from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to Trump. They also knew they were missing other presidential documents like the altered Hurricane Dorian map. NARA contacted Trump's representatives. On May 6, NARA emailed Trump's lawyers with the request for their "immediate assistance" to return the Kim letters along with "roughly two dozen" boxes that were in Trump's White House residence during the final days of his presidency and that were sent to Florida, although Cipollone had determined they should have been sent to NARA. That month, Trump allegedly had some of the boxes brought to the Bedminster Club. In June 2021, NARA instructed a former lawyer in Trump's White House counsel's office to send them the Kim letters via FedEx. On November 21, 2021, a White House employee flew to Mar-a-Lago and advised Trump: "Whatever you have, give everything back. Let them come here and get everything. Don't give them a noble reason to indict you, because they will." In an FBI interview a year later, this person said they had believed that Trump would return the boxes to NARA. NARA and Trump's lawyers continued to negotiate. Between November 2021 and January 2022, Trump allegedly had his employees bring boxes out of the storage room and into his residence so he could review their contents. Partial return of records to NARA 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. The boxes included documents from the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security Agency on a variety of topics of national security interest. 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", • documents marked as "HCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI" The document about Iran that he showed off at Bedminster in July 2021 may have been among the documents surrendered at this time; a military document marked "TOP SECRET//NOFORN" was in Trump's possession until January 17, 2022, and Trump was eventually charged with possessing it. Trump attorney Alex Cannon helped to transfer these 15 boxes to NARA. On February 8, NARA lawyer Gary Stern told colleagues that Cannon had told him he was unsure whether all relevant documents had been turned over. NARA itself had noted "reams of classified material and disorganized boxes" and remained suspicious, according to the Washington Post. 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. and would continue to include him in discussions over a year later. FBI/DOJ launches criminal investigation and issues subpoenas , Acting Archivist of the United States, to M. Evan Corcoran, attorney for former president Donald J. Trump In April 2022, the DOJ opened a criminal investigation and initiated a grand jury process On April12, 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 to Trump's attorney 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. May 2022 subpoena Trump's team, anticipating a subpoena, practiced moving documents. Some officials have referred to this behavior as a "dress rehearsal". On May 11, the DOJ subpoenaed Trump for "any and all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the Office of Donald J. Trump bearing classification markings". Trump's advisers also repeatedly urged him to fully comply, On May 12, the DOJ issued a grand jury subpoena to the National Archives for the classified documents they had provided to the House select committee investigating the January 6 United States Capitol attack. On May 22, Walt Nauta, Trump's personal assistant, spent a half-hour in the storage room and removed one box, according to the grand jury's allegations. Over the following days, at Trump's direction, Nauta removed about 64 boxes from the storage room and brought them to Trump's residence: three boxes on May 24, about 50 on May 30, and about 11 on June 1. When questioned by the FBI, at first Nauta denied any knowledge of the classified documents, but in a second interview he admitted his and Trump's involvement. On June 2, Corcoran was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon to review the boxes in the storage room. At midday, before Corcoran's arrival, Mar-a-Lago maintenance chief Carlos de Oliveira together with Nauta moved about 30 boxes into the storage room, Corcoran was not informed that about 64 boxes had been moved out over recent days and that about 30 boxes had been moved in just hours previously. Nauta and de Oliveira loaded boxes onto the plane. Trump's custodian of records, Christina Bobb, gave the DOJ a signed declaration that had been drafted by Corcoran, attesting that all classified material had been returned (though Trump's team may have been aware this was not true). During this visit, FBI agents noticed over 50 boxes in the storage room, but Trump's lawyers said they couldn't look inside. With the help of an informant, the DOJ came to believe that more classified documents remained on the premises. On June8, the FBI told Trump's team to better secure the storage area, so Trump aides added a padlock to the room. Less than two weeks later, Trump notified NARA to add Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official, and journalist John Solomon as "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration." June 2022 subpoena On June 22, the DOJ emailed a draft of the grand jury's subpoena to one of Trump's attorneys. It asked the Trump Organization for surveillance footage of the Mar-a-Lago storage room. who worked in the IT office, how long security footage stayed on the server. Taveras said he believed it was generally retained for 45 days. De Oliveira said "the boss" wanted the footage deleted, but Taveras resisted. In early afternoon, de Oliveira and Nauta spoke in person, and in late afternoon, de Oliveira spoke to Trump by phone. FBI/DOJ obtains search warrant from federal court Federal emails disclosed in December 2025 revealed that the FBI initially did not believe that it had probable cause to obtain a search warrant against Trump, but pursued one under pressure from the Biden Department of Justice. Nevertheless, an unnamed source told the Miami Herald that federal agents were able to establish probable cause because they 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 search warrant showed that the FBI was investigating Trump for suspected violations of three Title 18 federal laws Section 793 (a part of the Espionage Act of 1917); Section 1519 (part of the fiscal oversight Sarbanes–Oxley Act); and 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. Reinhart, who had previously been a federal prosecutor for a decade, was misidentified by some sources as being a Trump appointee, but the position in fact is one filled by the courts themselves. Will Hurd, a former CIA agent and former Texas 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 ==

and documents found and photographed in the search of Mar-a-Lago. White areas are redactions. at Mar-a-Lago On August 8, 2022, at 8:39 am, 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 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, Two of Trump's lawyers, Christina Bobb and Lindsey Halligan, were present for the search 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". to ensure that no privileged correspondence between Trump and his lawyers were removed. where they opened a "hotel-style" safe containing "nothing of consequence", and finally Trump's residence. 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 concluded the search at 4:33 p.m. and a receipt for property was provided to Trump's Attorney at 6:19 p.m. before agents left the property around 6:30 p.m. with the boxes. The FBI did not search a locked closet near the front of the estate (of which the FBI agents were aware during the search) nor a "hidden room" connected to Trump's bedroom (of which they were unaware), according to ABC News in February 2024. It is not clear whether any classified documents were in the rooms. Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics, was the first to report on the event. Trump also publicly acknowledged the search. Days later, some Mar-a-Lago employees were aware that the FBI had failed to search at least one room. Investigators with the Smith special counsel investigation learned of this before Trump was indicted in June 2023, and they interviewed several witnesses. Judge Beryl Howell noted, "More classified-marked documents still were uncovered in November 2022 in a leased storage unit, in December 2022 in the Office at Mar-a-Lago, and apparently sometime thereafter in the former president’s own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago". The documents were found by Trump's attorneys, who provided them to the FBI in January 2023. Search of other Trump properties On December 7, 2022, it was reported that additional documents with classified markings had recently been found at another Trump location in West Palm Beach, following a search of multiple locations, by a team hired through Trump's legal representatives. The documents were handed over to the FBI. Following this disclosure, the DOJ said Trump had not complied with the subpoena issued in May, but Judge Beryl Howell decided not to hold him in contempt of court. == Release of search warrant, property receipt, and affidavit ==

Release of search warrant and property receipt 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 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. Trump later said on social media that he supported the release of the warrant and related documents, though he declined to release them himself, 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. A year later, it was revealed that there had been a total of eight search warrants and affidavits. The government wanted them to remain secret, and it was not revealed whether the other seven had been for different locations nor what material had been sought. Seized materials FBI agents seized over 13,000 government documents, among which they found 103 classified government documents. Documents and empty folders with classified markings were found both in the basement storage room and in Trump's 45 Office. The classified material was grouped into 11 sets. Of the classified material: • 18 documents were marked top secret, and one of these sets had the control system protocol "top secret/SCI" (i.e., sensitive compartmented information). • 54 documents (grouped into three sets) were marked secret. • 31 documents (grouped into three sets) were marked confidential. showed that Trump possessed documents marked "TS/SCI" and another item labeled "Info re: President of France". Of the 13,000 documents seized, the Justice Department's filter team set aside 520 pages as potentially subject to attorney-client privilege. On September 6, The Washington Post reported that some of the seized documents contained details of special-access programs requiring special clearances on a need-to-know basis that could only be granted by "the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official". They would normally be kept in a "secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location." One of the documents described "a foreign government's military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities". Topics included Iran's missile program and U.S. intelligence operations involving China. Missing materials On October 1, 2022, The Washington Post reported that, according to two unnamed sources, NARA had informed the House Oversight Committee that some presidential records had not been recovered. On October 6, The New York Times reported that, according to two unnamed sources, the Justice Department informed Trump's lawyers "in recent weeks" that Trump is still holding material. Motions to release search warrant affidavit Many newspapers and media organizations motioned to unseal the probable-cause affidavit which had been submitted to the judge on August 5 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 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. 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. 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. 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 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. • To "determine whether the storage location(s) at [Mar-a-Lago] were authorized locations for the storage of classified information"; The FBI attached to the affidavit a May 25, 2022, 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. One revelation was that some of the seized documents contained Trump's handwritten notes, proving that he did handle those documents at some point during or after his presidency. Release of detailed property list A detailed property list was unsealed on September 2 as a result of Trump's lawsuit against the United States. The list showed that Trump had intermingled classified items with other items, like documents and photographs without classification markings, news clippings, unspecified gifts, items of clothing, and a book. == Trump v. United States ==

On August 22, two weeks after the search, Trump filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida, seeking the appointment of a special master to review the seized materials for potential attorney-client or executive privilege. The case was assigned to District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. On September 1, Cannon ordered the DOJ to release the previously sealed detailed property list of the seized materials. She ordered the DOJ to halt its review of all materials on September 5, and she appointed Raymond J. Dearie, senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, as special master on September 15. The next day, the DOJ appealed the ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. On September 22, the appeals court granted the DOJ's request to restore investigators' access to the classified files and block the special master from access to them. On December 1, the appeals court ended the special master review, allowed the government to use all the documents in its investigation, and directed the lower court to dismiss Trump's lawsuit. Trump did not appeal to the Supreme Court, and Cannon dismissed his lawsuit on December 12 for lack of jurisdiction. == Special counsel investigation ==

On November 18, 2022, Garland appointed a special counsel, federal prosecutor Jack Smith, to oversee the federal criminal investigation. The Justice Department's press release said that Smith would oversee "the ongoing investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records, as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation." Indictment On June 8, 2023, Trump was indicted with 37 counts of charges related to the documents in the Federal District Court in Miami, the first time a former U.S. president faced federal charges. Charges included retaining and failing to deliver national defense documents under the Espionage Act, for which there were 31 counts naming 31 specific documents. None of these documents had been in the boxes Trump voluntarily surrendered to NARA in January 2022; they were either turned over under subpoena the following June or else seized under search warrant at Mar-a-Lago the following August. On June 13, Trump was arrested and arraigned. As with his previous arraignment in New York, no mugshot was taken, though he was fingerprinted and processed during this arrest. As part of the conditions for his release, he avoided paying bond but was barred from discussing the case with Walt Nauta and with witnesses. On July 27, a superseding indictment added three more felony counts. A year later, on July 15, 2024, Judge Cannon dismissed the case, ruling that Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel had been unconstitutional. The Special Counsel appealed the dismissal, but following Trump's election to the presidency that November, it dropped the appeal. == Return of seized property ==

Once Trump took office for a second time, the Department of Justice arranged for the material seized in the August 2022 search to be returned to Trump. On February 28, 2025, as Trump boarded an Air Force One flight from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland headed to Mar-a-Lago, boxes were loaded onto the plane. Trump issued a statement: "The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes." White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and counselor to the president Alina Habba both used the phrase "personal items" in describing what those boxes contained. == Reactions ==

Congress 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". 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. 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. 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. The Congressional Research Service issued a "Sidebar" bulletin to brief members and Committees of Congress on the legal aspects of the case. 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 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. In another speech on August 30, Biden condemned the threats against law enforcement and calls to defund the FBI as "sickening". He criticized Republicans for what he claimed was hypocrisy in what he described as their calls for "riots in the streets" and purported refusal to condemn the January 6 United States Capitol attack. At the end of December 2022, Biden's attorneys found classified documents in Biden's former office and in his Delaware home, dating back to when he was vice president in the Obama administration. They surrendered the documents. Their discovery was reported in January 2023. National Archives The National Archives made multiple press statements concerning Trump's presidential records in response to media queries. They have also released numerous records relevant to the Trump administration's adherence to the Presidential Records Act in response to FOIA requests. On August 24, NARA staff told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform they could not be certain they had all of Trump's presidential records. The same day, in an internal letter to all NARA employees, acting Archivist Debra Wall said NARA had received both threats and praise from members of the public for its role in the ongoing FBI investigation. On September 13, Rep. Carolyn Maloney of the House Oversight and Reform Committee wrote a letter to NARA, requesting an "urgent review" of all recovered documents and an assessment regarding any and all "presidential records [that] remain unaccounted for and potentially in the possession of the former president". On September 30, the National Archives responded to the committee's request, writing in part: "While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should ... With respect to the second issue concerning whether former President Trump has surrendered all presidential records, we respectfully refer you to the Department of Justice in light of its ongoing investigation". Trump, his family, and his attorneys On August 14, Trump demanded the return of boxes of seized documents that were alleged covered by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. Beginning with his first announcement after the search, Trump and his attorneys made a variety of statements relating to the search and the FBI 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 investigations into links between Trump associates and Russian officials and whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, as well as 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. According to The Washington Post, Trump has struggled to assemble an experienced legal defense team, with many of his former lawyers declining to take part in the case. Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said that Trump's lead counsel were exceptionally talented and had "litigated some of the most complex cases in American history". The New York Times credits political advisor Boris Epshteyn for his role in assembling Trump's legal team. Epshteyn previously assisted in the defense of Trump's false claims of a stolen election in 2020. Former Trump attorney David Schoen has said the current situation remains problematic, with members of the defense team "rotating in and out", and lacking clear leadership. Trump later added former Florida solicitor general Chris Kise to his legal team for the case, but within a month, Kise's role was reportedly reduced. According to The New York Times, Kise had "suggested hiring a forensic firm to search for additional documents" following requests from Jay Bratt at the Justice Department, who expressed concern that more documents were still missing. Disagreement between Trump's lawyers reportedly led to a minimization of Kise's participation on the defense team, due to his more conciliatory approach. Trump's political action committee, the Save America PAC, sent out more than 100 fundraising emails in the days following the FBI search. Daily donations increased from an average of $200,000–$300,000 to more than $1,000,000 for at least two days. The emails claimed that former president Trump was being politically persecuted. In July, the Save America PAC paid almost $1,000,000 to civil and criminal lawyers representing Trump and the Trump Organization in lawsuits. On December 22, 2022, the U.S. House select committee investigating the January 6 attack published its final report, in which it remarked that DOJ appears to be "investigating the conduct of counsel for certain witnesses whose fees are being paid by President Trump's Save America Political Action Committee." The House committee noted that DOJ, in its public report of its Mar-a-Lago investigation, had seemed to express concern that those attorneys might be more loyal to Trump's defense than to their clients' defenses and thus may try to influence their clients' witness testimony. The House committee said it shared those concerns, and it revealed that it had provided related information to DOJ and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Related to these comments, the House committee cited three news reports. Claims of political motivation, planted evidence, and Obama precedent Trump likened the search to the 1970s Watergate scandal. He made unsubstantiated allegations that it was politically motivated to stop him from running for president in 2024, and a "politically motivated move" by the Biden administration. He criticized the FBI for searching his wife Melania Trump's rooms and belongings in Mar-a-Lago. On August 11, Trump made the unsubstantiated claim 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". the falsehoods were amplified by conservative commentators on Fox News. NARA responded that they had taken "exclusive legal and physical custody" of Obama's records when he left office in 2017, 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". The accusation was noted to be without precedent in modern U.S. history. Trump's campaign sent an email with the subject line: "They were authorized to shoot me!" The email said: "You know they’re just itching to do the unthinkable … Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger." The same day, he posted to Truth Social saying that "Joe Biden’s DOJ ... AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE." Trump's comment was in reaction to a standard law enforcement policy statement, attached to the FBI's description of the planned search of Mar-a-Lago, that officers may use lethal force only to counter "imminent danger of death or serious physical injury". The FBI had taken steps to ensure that Trump would not be present during the search and gave advance notice to the Secret Service. On May 24, Jack Smith's office asked Judge Cannon to place a gag order on Trump related to this "repeated mischaracterization" of the actions of law enforcement officials. Claims of declassifying all documents On August 12, Trump posted to Truth Social claiming that the documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago were "all declassified" before he left office. That day, his office issued a statement admitting that he had frequently taken home classified documents and further claiming that he had issued a "standing order" that anything he took home was automatically and "instantly" declassified. Sections of the Code of Federal Regulation addressing declassification require markings that are "uniformly and conspicuously applied to leave no doubt about the declassified status of the information and who authorized the declassification". Except for Kash Patel, former Trump administration officials said they never heard of such a "standing order" issued by Trump, and labeled the claim false. • John Bolton, who was Trump's national security advisor, said that Trump's claim was a "complete fiction" and "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: "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, called Trump's claim "preposterous", as declassification requires recordkeeping as well as notifying the agencies that used the information. • Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA under the Obama administration, similarly said Trump's claim was "pretty much BS". He explained that the declassification process requires authorization by various agencies. "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. On September 21, 2022, Trump appeared on the Hannity show on Fox News, claiming that "there doesn't have to be a process" and a president "can declassify just by saying, 'It's declassified.' Even by thinking about it." This notion was "mocked" by legal experts. Lawyers noted that "even if Trump did somehow declassify the documents, he had no right to take them when he left office on Jan. 20, 2020 ... [Trump] had no (legal) interest in these documents." The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals noted that "the declassification argument is a 'red herring'." Lawsuit On August 7, 2024, Trump filed a tort claim saying he intended to sue the FBI for $100 million. The FBI has six months to respond, after which Trump can sue. 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. Patel repeatedly blamed the General Services Administration (GSA) for "mistakenly pack[ing] some boxes and mov[ing] them to Mar-a-Lago". The GSA replied that it was the outgoing presidential transition team and their volunteers who packed the boxes, put them on pallets, and shrink-wrapped them. 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. 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. 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 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 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. 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 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 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. 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". 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". Many Republicans accused the DOJ and FBI of a double standard for their previous treatment of the Hillary Clinton email controversy, where former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was investigated but not charged over classified material found on her private email server during her tenure as US secretary of State. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina predicted the likelihood of street violence if Trump was indicted. 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. 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". On September 25, Senator John Barrasso, pressed by ABC host George Stephanopoulos, acknowledged: "I don't think a president can declassify documents by saying so, by 'thinking about'." Congressional Democrats House Democrats praised the search as a step toward accountability for Trump. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States 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". 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". Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael Sallah of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 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. Intelligence community Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan called the storage of sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago "the height of recklessness and irresponsibility". Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) under Trump from 2017 to 2019, defended the FBI stating that "my first thought was Chris [Wray] would not have signed off on that unless he thought the process was not working or they were not getting the right answers back from lawyers or others and it was serious enough to take that action". 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". Jeffrey Smith, former general counsel to the CIA, and David Laufman, former chief of the counterespionage section at the DOJ's National Security Division, warned of the investigation not having strong enough evidence to have a conviction at trial. Pence denied having any classified documents, but in January 2023, classified documents were found at Pence's Indiana home. 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. Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton said "almost nothing would surprise me about what's in the documents at Mar-a-Lago". He 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. Trump's Save America PAC paid Patel's legal fees. == Notes ==