Sources within the Department of Justice (DOJ) have indicated that a search warrant was executed on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday because an informant alerted the agency about White House documents being kept on the property, some of which are classified.
Newsweek reported the detailsTwo government sources who were aware of the raid told us how the search was conducted on Wednesday.
Sources told the publication that the informant provided details to government agents on where Trump was hiding documents. The informant’s identity was not disclosed.
The government officials who spoke to NewsweekTo avoid making a spectacle, the raid was planned to occur while Trump was in New York City. Agents didn’t want Trump blasting the search — which included around two dozen FBI agents and technicians — in real time, on social media or through official statements. Investigators were also concerned that Trump might try to stop the investigation.
According to the publication, preparations for the raid began many weeks ago.
Monday The FBI removed approximately 12 boxes from Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Newsweek’s sources, the items that were taken included classified documents and national security-related material that Trump wasn’t supposed to take from the White House.
Earlier this year, when the National Archives removed 15 separate boxes of items that had originated from Trump’s time in the White House from Mar-a-Lago, Trump maintained that the boxes didn’t include anything sensitive or classified, and that they were taken in the frenzy to exit the White House on his final day there. These assertions were not supported by the National Archives. In April, the DOJ was asked to investigate..
It’s possible that Trump’s removal of those items is in violation of the Presidential Records Act, a federal law that requires all materials written on or handled by the president to be archived. According to one of the DOJ sources that spoke to NewsweekEarlier that month, a federal grand jury that the department convened concluded that some type of law violation had occurred. Others speculate that Trump may have committed additional violationsHis mishandling of papers led to his dismissal.
During the search Trump issued a statement decrying the investigation as political; in it, he described the search as an indication of “dark times for our Nation,” calling it a “weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.” Several legal experts, including former federal prosecutor (and current president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) Noah Bookbinder, disagreed with Trump’s comments.
“The FBI could only execute a search warrant if a federal judge found probable cause that a crime was committed and that evidence of that crime would likely be found at the place to be searched…Given that this was the property of a former president, a judge unquestionably took that responsibility very seriously,” Bookbinder said in a tweet. “No one was casual about this.”
