FBI sought national defence documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, affidavit shows

The FBI believed there was probable cause that highly sensitive documents that contained US national defence information were scattered across Donald Trump’s resort in Florida, according to a partially redacted affidavit used to justify the search of the property unsealed on Friday.

The affidavit — extensively redacted by the justice department to protect details about the ongoing criminal investigation into Trump’s unauthorised retention of government secrets — also provided additional new details about the materials he had retained at Mar-a-Lago.

According to the redacted affidavit, the FBI sought to retrieve national defence information across several rooms at Trump’s resort, including his residence, the foyer to his residence known as Pine Hall, his office, as well as a storage area, among other locations.

The exact basis for the FBI’s suspicion was not clear, and vast passages of the affidavit that appeared to indicate how the justice department had that knowledge were blocked out in order not to reveal the “roadmap” of an investigation that remains in its early stages, officials said.

But in one non-redacted part of the affidavit, the FBI agent in the Washington DC field office who produced the document indicated the agency had a suspicion that crimes were being committed at Mar-a-Lago.

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“I submit that probable cause exists to believe that evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed ... will be found at the PREMISES,” the agent stated in the document.

The affidavit also outlined the FBI’s alarm with what the National Archives obtained from Trump in the months before the search of Mar-a-Lago two weeks ago, and how the documents retrieved in 15 boxes contained some of the most classified materials in existence.

The document said that justice department learned that a preliminary review of the 15 boxes taken to Mar-a-Lago “indicated that they contained ‘newspapers, magazines, printed news articles, photos, miscellaneous printouts, notes, presidential correspondence, personal and post-presidential records, and a lot of classified records’.

“Of most significant concern was that highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records, and otherwise unproperly [sic] identified,” it warned.

The order to unseal the document came from Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the warrant and is overseeing the case from West Palm Beach, Florida. It instructed the justice department to submit the redacted affidavit that he had reviewed in the public docket before noon leading to a tense, breathless wait for many observers in the political and media world.

In an earlier two-page ruling, the judge said the justice department’s proposed redactions were narrowly tailored to keep secret grand jury material, the identities of uncharged individuals and sources and methods used in the criminal investigation — and the remainder could become public.

“The government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit,” Judge Reinhart wrote.

The affidavit contains key information — notably the probable cause — about the justice department’s investigation into the unauthorised retention of government secrets at Mar-a-Lago, which, according to the warrant, could constitute violations of at least three criminal statutes.

In a statement on his Truth Social social media network Mr Trump, in typically strident language, blasted the release of the document. He called it a “total public relations subterfuge” by the FBI and Department of Justice. He also slammed Judge Reinhart and the decision to allow the raid. “Judge Bruce Reinhart should NEVER have allowed the Break-In of my home,” he said and accused the judge of having a deep personal animosity towards him.

Thepartial release of the affidavit is a major juncture in the developing investigation, being led by the justice department’s national security division, and the attorney general, Merrick Garland, who personally approved the warrant after days of deliberations.

The justice department had originally opposed unsealing the affidavit at all, and only filed a redacted version after being forced by Judge Reinhart last week.

The former president had indicated previously that he had supported unsealing the affidavit but his lawyers never filed a formal motion to that effect, and instead left the effort to a coalition of media outlets that pushed to have the affidavit become public.

Trump has since filed a separate motion to have a so-called special master appointed to determine what seized materials prosecutors can use as evidence in the investigation, and to force the justice department to provide a more detailed list of what was retrieved by the FBI.—Guardian