Trump’s Passports Returned after Being Seized in Mar-a-Lago Search, DOJ Says
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The Department of Justice returned Donald Trump’s passports after the former president said that the FBI seized three of them when agents searched his residence at Mar-a-Lago, a DOJ official told NBC News on Monday.
Trump had written on Truth Social, “Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country.”
“Third World!” he added.
Authorities typically confiscate a person’s passports when he or she is believed to be a flight risk or if the person could face criminal charges preventing them from traveling outside of the country.
Law enforcement is investigating whether Trump broke laws relating to removal or destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation, and the Espionage Act, according to the search warrant for the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.
A federal judge unsealed the search warrant for Trump’s residence, as well as other related documents on Friday afternoon. The DOJ revealed earlier on Friday that Trump’s lawyers would not object to the documents’ release.
A list of items removed from the property shows the FBI recovered eleven sets of classified documents during the search, including some top-secret documents that should only have been available in special government facilities.
FBI agents recovered one set of documents that were labeled “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” meaning the documents included top-secret or sensitive compartmented information.
The list also included four sets of top-secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents. The list did not offer any details about the substance of the documents.
The list, which was included in a seven-page document that featured the warrant to search the premises, reveals that FBI agents took roughly 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note, and the executive grant of clemency for Roger Stone, as well as information about the president of France.
Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to claim that the documents had already been declassified.
“They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago,” he wrote. “It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request. They could have had it anytime they wanted—and that includes LONG ago. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK.”
Fox News reported that the FBI seized several boxes containing records covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
