A senior government official told NBC News that the FBI was at Mar-a-Largo “for most of the day” and confirmed that the search warrant was related to the National Archives.
Trump this year had to return 15 boxes of documents that were improperly removed from the White House, the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, said in February.
“In mid-January 2022, NARA arranged for the transportation from the Trump Mar-a-Lago property in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes containing presidential records, following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021,” the National Archives said in a statement on February 7.
The same month, the National Archives and Records Administration asked the Justice Department to look into whether Trump’s handling of White House records violated federal law, a story it first reported. The Washington Post and later confirmed by NBC News sources.
The New York Times on Monday reported for the first time the FBI focuses on National Archives materials.
Just hours before agents searched Trump’s residence, the FBI notified the Secret Service of the bureau’s plans to execute the warrant, according to a Secret Service official. The Secret Service facilitated access to the property, the official said, but was not involved in any aspect of the search.
At Justice Department headquarters, a spokesman declined to comment. An official from the FBI field office in Washington also declined to comment, and an official from the FBI field office in Miami also declined to comment.
A senior law enforcement official in Florida confirmed there was “law enforcement activity” in Mar-a-Largo on Monday.
The White House said it had not been notified.
“We had no notice of the reported action and are referring you to the Department of Justice for additional information,” a White House official said.
Trump is not at Mar-a-Lago, his winter residence. He often spends his summers at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
The FBI search came days after Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News that the “broadest investigation” in the Justice Department’s history was looking into more than just the rioters who stormed the Capitol and physically attacked agents, but also if someone was “criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another”.
The search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate came just over six years after another FBI crackdown on classified material that set the stage for the College’s victory Trump’s 2016 election: Former FBI Director James Comey’s July 5, 2016 press conference about Trump’s Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Comey, who broke with Justice Department protocol, said at the time that Clinton and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of highly sensitive and highly classified information,” though he said the facts did not they admitted the presentation of criminal charges.
Trump has been a persistent critic of Clinton’s handling of classified material, claiming in 2016 that it was “the biggest political scandal since Watergate.” It was Comey’s handling of the Clinton affair that was used as justification for Trump’s decision to fire Comey. Trump eventually replaced Comey with Christopher Wray. He remains in office.
Republicans rallied around the de facto leader of their party, who is weighing another bid for the presidency.
