67 confidential. 92 secret. 25 top secret. The documents in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago boxes, by the numbers
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An FBI affidavit outlining the justification for the search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property has revealed that the former president held onto hundreds of classified documents after he left office.
A redacted copy of the 32-page affidavit was released by the Justice Department on Friday in response to public pressure over its extraordinary search of Mr Trump’s resort and residence.
During that search, on 8 August, FBI agents carried away 20 boxes containing 11 sets of classified government records, some of which were labeled “top secret.”
While the affidavit does not describe what was seized in the search of Mar-a-Lago, it reveals for the first time the precise number of classified and secret documents contained in 15 boxes that were returned by Mr Trump to the National Archives in January.
The scale of secret documents found in those returned boxes, which were reviewed by the National Archives in May, was cited by the FBI as a justification for the Mar-a-Lago search, as they suspected Mr Trump was in possession of even more classified material.
FBI agents carried away a further 20 boxes following their search of Mar-a-Lago containing 11 sets of classified government records, some of which were labeled "top secret."
Here is what was contained in those 15 boxes, according to the FBI affidavit:
15 boxes of documents
184 unique documents bearing classification markings
67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL
92 documents marked as SECRET
25 documents marked as TOP SECRET
Several documents of Mr Trump’s handwritten notes
The affidavit further noted that within those classifications were documents that were subject to strict dissemination controls, meaning they were only allowed to be shared with certain people under certain conditions.
Those controls were the following:
ORCON: Originator control
NOFORN: No foreign nationals
HCS: HUMINT (human intelligence) Control System.
SI: COMINT (communication intelligence, or intercepts) Special Intelligence
