Trump blasts FBI over filing including evidence photos of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago
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Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday blasted FBI agents over the “terrible” way they spread out seized classified documents on the carpet of his Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month.
“Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see,” Trump raged on his Truth Social site.
“Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!”
The Justice Department included a photo of the seized documents – some marked “top secret” — in a court filing late Tuesday in response to Trump’s bid to have a special master appointed to determine if any materials recovered in the FBI’s Aug. 8 raid were potentially subject to attorney-client privilege.
The photo showed a number of documents strewn across the carpeted floor containing brightly colored cover sheets indicating their classified status, including “top secret” and “secret.”
The seized materials were uncovered from inside the “45 office” Trump has set up at his palatial Florida home – complete with a replica of the Resolute Desk he sat behind in the White House Oval Office. Prosecutors said agents found some classified documents in desk drawers inside Trump’s office.
Some of the top secret documents spread on the floor were brandished with a specific security classification –“TS/SCI”, which is an abbreviation for sensitive compartmented information — that meant FBI agents and federal prosecutors had to get special clearance just to view them, the DOJ’s latest filing said.
“The classification levels ranged from CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information, and certain documents included additional sensitive compartments that signify very limited distribution,” the filing said.
“In some instances, even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents.”
Top secret is the highest classification level and refers to information that could cause “exceptionally grave damage to the national security” if released. Information that could be classified top secret includes nuclear codes or details provided by a sensitive human source — aka a spy.
Meanwhile, the secret classification refers to information that would potentially cause “serious” damage to national security if it was made public. And the confidential classification is the lowest category currently in use.
TS/SCI, which some of the documents were marked with, is not considered a separate classification level, but instead can refer to a single program or the way the information was collected, for example intercepted communications by intelligence sources.
In total, more than 100 documents with classification markings were uncovered in the box loads of materials the FBI seized during last month’s raid – more than double the amount recovered during a June search of the property, the DOJ’s filing said.
The FBI probe into the top secret material is zeroing in on the question of whether Trump’s team criminally obstructed the investigation amid allegations that records had been concealed and removed.
According to the latest DOJ filing, law enforcement officials tried to get back all classified records from Mar-a-Lago in June – and they were falsely assured by Trump’s team that everything had been accounted for after a “diligent search.”
At that visit, Trump’s attorney also prohibited government investigators from opening or looking inside some of the boxes that Trump kept inside one of his storage rooms, they said.
When the FBI returned with a court-approved search warrant, agents found classified documents in the storage room and Trump’s office – despite a Trump lawyer previously telling them any records taken from the White House had only ever been kept in Mar-a-Lago’s storage room, according to the filing.
“That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former president’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter,” the filing said.
The purpose of the DOJ’s latest filing was to oppose a request from Trump’s team for the special master – an authorized third party – to review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago and to return any materials that may be protected under client privilege.
Trump’s team had until Wednesday 8 p.m. to file a response ahead of a Thursday hearing in the Southern District of Florida regarding the matter.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Saturday said it was her “preliminary intent” to appoint such a person but also gave the Justice Department an opportunity to respond.
In its filing, the Justice Department said the appointment of a special master was “unnecessary” because a government “filter team” has already gone through the documents and separated out any that could be subject to attorney-client privilege.
It also said naming a special master “would significantly harm important governmental interests, including national security interests” and would “impede” the continuing investigation.
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