Lindsey Halligan, a Florida lawyer for former President Donald Trump, was at Mar-a-Lago and spoke to CBS News about the FBI search. Here is his description of what happened:
Halligan got a call around 10 a.m. Monday FBI agents they were at Trump’s Palm Beach home, Mar-a-Lago, and had a search warrant.
She was the second Trump lawyer to arrive at the scene, around 11 a.m., after the search had begun. Christina Bobb, who used to be a TV anchor on the far-right OAN Network, was already there.
Over the next eight hours, Halligan said 30 to 40 FBI personnel conducted the search. There were a handful dressed in suits, but most wore t-shirts, cargo pants, masks and gloves. Halligan estimated that 10 to 15 FBI vehicles drove in and out of the property, including a Ryder truck.
She was not a witness boxes or documents loaded into the truck, although he did not dispute that FBI investigators took material from Mar-a-Lago; Halligan just didn’t see it.
Sources told CBS News that the FBI did indeed take boxes and documents from Mar-a-Lago, but no electronics. Two sources said some, if not all, of the documents are potentially classified records.
The National Archives and Records Administration recovered 15 boxes of records, some of which contained classified material, from Mar-a-Lago in mid-January. Monday’s search appears to be part of that Justice Department investigation.
Halligan says she and Bobb were barred from the resort, forced to remain outside, between the ballroom and the residence, on the Mar-a-Lago grounds.
According to Halligan, the FBI divided the search into three areas: a bedroom, a storage area and an office.
He said he spoke with Trump, who expressed shock at the FBI’s search. He said he thought he had complied with investigators’ requests. He told Halligan that the Justice Department has an open line with his attorneys and said he ordered them to turn over the responsive documents if they had them. He said the former president expressed concern about the Biden administration’s abuse of power.
US officials confirm that the search of Trump’s house was approved by the highest levels of the Department of Justice. However, Attorney General Merrick Garland is not expected to make any public statements about the investigation or the search.
Halligan said the search warrant was sealed, and because he hadn’t been part of that aspect of Trump’s legal brief until Monday, he didn’t know what kinds of documents the FBI might be looking for or what kinds of documents the ‘former president keeps with him. Mar-a-Lago.
However, he insisted the government’s search “was an appalling display of abuse and power – total excess”. He also assured that “if they needed documents, they could have asked. There has never been any problem with compliance.” Halligan said the finding was a “big surprise”.
The search teams closed their work around 6:30 p.m
