Trump search warrant: FBI took top secret documents from Mar-a-Lago

A warrant shows the FBI took 11 sets of classified documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida earlier this week.

One list of documents is marked “TS/SCI” – or top secret / sensitive compartmented information – a level reserved for information that could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to US security.

Mr Trump denies any wrongdoing.

He said the items were declassified and safe.

The items removed include more than 20 boxes, binders of photos, and a clemency letter written on behalf of political strategist Roger Stone, a long-time Trump ally.

Also recovered was information about the “President of France”, although it is unclear what that refers to.

A seven-page document including the warrant was unsealed on Friday afternoon.

The Justice Department had asked a court to make it public on Thursday, a move considered rare amid an ongoing investigation.

As well as the top secret documents, the list includes three sets of “secret documents”, and three sets of “confidential” documents.

The warrant indicates that FBI agents were looking into potential violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it illegal to keep or transmit potentially dangerous national security information.

The removal of classified documents or materials is prohibited by law. Mr Trump increased the penalties for the crime while in office. It is now punishable by up to five years in prison.

The warrant notes that the locations searched at Mar-a-Lago include an area called the “45 office” and storage rooms, but not private guest suites being used by Mr Trump and his staff.

It was approved by a judge on 5 August, three days before it was carried out on Monday, 8 August.

In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said the items recovered were “all declassified” and securely stored.

He said he would have been willing to hand the items over before the search warrant was carried out.

“They could have had it anytime they wanted – and that includes long ago,” he said. “All they had to do was ask.”

Mr Trump’s supporters have been making the legally debatable case that he had the authority as president to declassify all of the recovered documents before he left office, and did so.

Legal experts have told US media it is unclear whether this argument would hold up in court. Although the president does have the legal authority to declassify information, the procedure is unclear.

A spokesman for Mr Trump, Taylor Budowich, told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that the administration of Joe Biden “is in obvious damage control after their botched raid”.

Mr Budowich added that the search was “not just unprecedented, but unnecessary”. He also accused the administration of “leaking lies and innuendos to try to explain away the weaponisation of government against their dominant political opponent”.