Twice-impeached former president Donald Trump mixed personal correspondence and magazines with classified documents, according to the FBI.
The FBI raided his Palm Beach residence Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and found that 14 of the 15 boxes recovered from Trump's home contained multiple classified and top secret documents combined with magazines, personal correspondence and miscellaneous newspapers.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the Department of Justice to make a redacted version of the affidavit public by Friday. According to the document, FBI agents found that 25 of the 184 documents marked classified at Trump's estate were at top secret.
Most of the affidavit was redacted and the FBI said it was necessary to protect the safety and privacy of a significant number of civilian witnesses as well as law enforcement personnel "to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”
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The 28-page affidavit noted that “evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed” would be found at Mar-a-Lago.
In a May 25, 2022 letter to the Justice Department released along with the affidavit, a lawyer for Trump said classified information may have been "unknowingly included among the boxes brought to Mar-a-Lago by the movers."
The lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, said Trump had "readily and voluntarily" cooperated with NARA's request that documents be returned and said any investigation should not "involve politics."
Corcoran asserted that a president has the "absolute authority to declassify documents" and the "criminal statute that governs the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material does not apply to the president."
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Government lawyers had opposed the release of the affidavit but the judge ordered it unsealed with redactions the Justice Department said were necessary to protect an ongoing investigation involving national security.
In its application for a search warrant, the Justice Department said the investigation was related to "willful retention of national defense information," an offense that falls under the Espionage Act, "concealment or removal of government records" and "obstruction of a federal investigation."
The warrant, which was personally approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland, authorized the FBI to search the "45 office" -- a reference to the 45th US president's private office at his Mar-a-Lago residence -- and storage rooms.
In addition to investigations into his business practices, Trump faces legal scrutiny for his efforts to overturn the results of the November 2020 election, and for the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot -- he was charged with inciting an insurrection -- but was acquitted by the Senate.
With additional reporting by AFP
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