The Just🥀ice Department on Friday unsealed the FBI affidavit justifying the unpreꦯcedented search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
While the document released is highly redacted, with many of its pages crossed out by black blocks, it includes new details about the sheer volume of sensitive and highly classified information that was stored at the former president's Florida beachfront home, underscoring the government's concerns about its safety.
The Just🥀ice Department on Friday unsealed the FBI affidavit justifying the unpreꦯcedented search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
While the document released is highly redacted, with many of its pages crossed out by black blocks, it includes new details about the sheer volume of sensitive and highly classified inf𝔍ormation that was stored at the former president's Florida beachfront home, underscoring the government's concerns about its safety.
Here are top ta💃keaways of wh꧙at the document revealed:
While the affidavit doesn't provide new♑ details about the 11 sets of classified records that were recovered during the FBI's August 8 search of Tr🌊ump's winter home, it does help to explain why the Justice Department believed that retrieving the outstanding documents was necessary.
Federal investigators knew months before the search that Trump had been storing top secret government records at Mar-a-Lago, a private club accessible not only to Trump, his staff and his family, but paying members and their guests, alonꦉg with a revolving door of atten༒dees at various functions, including weddings, political fundraisers and charity galas.
The affidavit notes that Mar-a-Lago storage areas, Trump's office, his residential suite and other areas at ཧthe club where documents were suspected to still be kept were not authorised locatio🎶ns for the storage of classified information.
Indeed, it notes that no space at Mar-a-Lagoജ had been authorised for the storage of🥀 classified information at least since the end of Trump's term in office.
Yet the affi🅷davit reveals that, of the batch of 15 boxes that the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved from Trump's home in January, 14 contained documents with classifica൩tion markings.
Inside, they found 184 documents bearing classification markings, including 67 marked con༒fidential, 92 secret and 25 top secret.
The Archives referred the matter to the Justice ❀Department on February 9 after a preliminary review of the bo🐟xes found what they described as “a lot of classified records”.
Agents who inspected the boxes found special markings suggesting they included information from highly sensi🅰tive human sources or the collection of electronic “signa𓆏ls” authorised by a court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The aff🍰idavit𓃲 lists several markings, including ORCON, or “Originator Controlled”.
That means officials at the intelligence agency responsible for the report did not want it distributed t💞o other agencies without their permission.
There may also be other types of records w🎀ith classified names or codewords still redacteꦛd.
“When things are at that level of classification, it's because there's a real danger to the people who are collecting the information or the capability,” said Douglas London, a former senior CIA offi🐈cer who wrote a book about the agency, “The Recruiter”.
The Office of the Director of National Int✃elligence has not responded to calls from Congress for a damage assess𝓀ment.
Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a statement in which he once again called for a♎ briefing.
“It appears, based on the affidavit unsealed this morning, that among the im💦properly handled documents at Mar-a-Lago were some of our most sensitive intelligence,” Warner said.
Some of those classified records were mixed with other documents, the affidavit♓ says, citing a letter from the Archives.
According to Archives' White House liaison division director, the boxes contained “newspapers, magazines, printed news art🦩icles, photos, miscellaneous print-outs, notes, presidential correspondence, personal and post-presidential records, and a lot of classified records”.
Several con🌜tained what appeared to be Trump's handwritten notes.
Of most significant concern: “highly classified records were unfoldered, intermꦗixed with other records, and otherwise unproperly (sic) identifieꦕd”.
A president mi𒐪ght be given raw intelligence reporting to supplement his briefings or to cover a breaking or critically important matter, said David Priess, a former CIA officer and White House briefer who wrote “The President's Book of Secrets”, a history of the President's Daily Brief.
But it would be “unusual, if not unprecedented, for a president to keꦺep it and to intermingle it with other papers”, he said.
“Even though I was prepared for this because I knew the judge would not approve a search based on something minor, the breadth and depth of t💜he careless handling of classified information is truly shocking,” Priess said.
The affidavit makes clear yet again that Trump had numerous opportunities to return the doc🍷uments to the government, but simply chose not 🌠to.
A lengthy process to retrieve the documents had been underway essentiall🌳y since Trump left the White House. The document states that on or about May 6, 2021, the Archives made a request for the missing records “and continued to make requests until approximately late December 2021”, when it was informed 12 boxes were found and ready for retrieval from the club.
The affidavit makes clear that the Department of Justice's criminal investigation concerns not just the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorised spaces and the potentially unlawful concealment or removal of government records, but says investigators had “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction" would be found in 🔜their search.
Trump's lawyer, in a letter that was included in the release, had arguܫed to DOJ that presidents have “absolute” authority to declassify documents, claiming that his “constitutionally-based authority regarding the classification and declassification of documents is unfettered".
Trump has not provided evidence the docume🌃nts at Mar-a-Lago were declassified before he left Washingt🤡on.
Trump has long insisted, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that he fully cooperated with government officials and had every right to have the documents on sit꧙e.
On his social media site, he responded to the un🌟sealing by cont🐻inuing to vilify law enforcement.
He called it a “total public relations subterfuಌge by the FBI and DOJ” and said "WE GAVE THEM MUCH.”
In another post, he offered just two word♈s: “WITCH HUNT!!!”
In an interview on Lou Dobbs' “The Great America Show” 𓃲on Thursday, he said he꧅'d done nothing wrong.
“This is a political attack on our country and it's a disgrace,” he added. "It's😼 a disgrace💙.”