A ‘receipt for property’ written by FBI agents who searched Donald Trump‘s Florida home reveals that they carted away 11 sets of classified documents, photographs and other files marked ‘top secret’ among boxes of items.
The receipt and the search warrant, obtained by DailyMail.com on Friday afternoon, offer further insight into the unprecedented raid on a former president’s home.
In all, FBI agents took 27 boxes of documents.
In addition, they list an ‘Executive Grant of Clemency: Re Roger Jason Stone Jr’ – a former Trump adviser who was pardoned in the last days of Trump’s presidency – ‘info re: President of France‘ and a ‘handwritten note.’
The search warrant was approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart last week. FBI agents searched the Mar-a-Lago three days later on Monday, igniting a political storm
The ‘Receipt for Property’ lists items seized, including an ‘Executive Grant of Clemency: Re Roger Jason Stone Jr’ – a former Trump adviser who was pardoned in the last days of Trump’s presidency – ‘info re: President of France ‘ and a ‘handwritten note’
The search warrant for Donald Trump’s Florida home Mar-a-Lago reveals that FBI agents seized 11 sets of classified documents, photographs and other files marked ‘top secret’
A report on Friday claimed top secret documents were found in a storage room near the Mar-a-Lago pool. The estate has two pools, one near the main house and the other near to the ocean
The list also includes references to a set of documents marked ‘Various classified/TS/SCI documents.’ In the national security world, the ‘TS/SCI’ abbreviation generally refers to Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information – available only to those with the highest level of clearance.
Also listed are four sets of ‘top secret’ documents, three of ‘secret’ documents and three sets of ‘confidential’ documents, but the receipt offers no further information about what they contained.
Lawyers for Trump insist that as president he had the power to declassify the documents before leaving office.
For his part, Trump said the FBI did not need to search his property.
‘They could have had it anytime they wanted — and that includes long ago. All they had to do was ask,’ he said in a statement.
Trump allies have expressed fury at what they say was the heavy handed way the FBI went about the search.
After the former president confirmed the search, the Department of Justice asked a judge in Florida to unseal the warrant.
United States Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the warrant be released on Friday afternoon, when lawyers for Trump raised no objection.
However, it does not include the ‘affidavit’ setting out why the FBI wanted to search the property and the evidence they used to persuade a judge to grant a warrant.
The search warrant itself sets out the plan for the raid.
It describes how agents were to focus on areas of Mar-a-Lago used by Trump (referred to be an acronym for Former President of the United States) and to avoid areas used my club members.
Attachment A to the warrant sets out the areas of the property to be searched. Attachment B describes the items to be seized, including ‘physical documents with classification markings’
‘The locations to be searched inside the “45 Office,’ all storage rooms, and all other rooms or areas within the premises used of available to be used by FPOTUS and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or building on the estate,’ it says.
‘It does not include areas currently (i.e. at the time of the search) being occupied, rented, or used by third parties (such as Mar-a-Largo [sic] members) and not otherwise used or available to be used by FPOTUS, such as private guest suites.’
Under Attachment B, it says officers are to seize: ‘All physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits or crime, or other illegally possessed … including the following:
‘Any physical documents with classification markings, along with any containers/boxes that are collectively stored or found together with the aforementioned documents and containers/boxes.’
It also says ‘any government or presidential records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021’ will be seized – covering the entire time Trump was in office.