Little has been released by the Justice Department about the decision to retrieve White House records in an unannounced search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday. Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed on Friday that he had “personally approved” the extraordinary step of seeking the warrant, and the Justice Department made the warrant public on Friday, revealing that the government is investigating Trump for a possible violation of three statutes criminal charges, including the Espionage Act.
The former president was outraged that the FBI had conducted a surprise search of Mar-a-Lago and suggested that his team had been complying with government requests.
“[T]”There was no need to ‘seize’ anything,” he said in a Truth Social post on Friday. “They could have had it any time they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secure storage, with an extra lock placed at their request. . . .They could have -had it any time they wanted, and that includes a long time ago. All they had to do was ask.”
But CBS News learned about it weeks before the search, a Trump lawyer signed a document certifying that all classified materials had been removed from Mar-a-Lago, according to two sources familiar with the timeline of events and the decision to seek the search warrant.
That came after a June 3 meeting between Justice Department officials and the former president’s lawyers at Mar-a-Lago. A grand jury subpoena had been issued in the spring, according to two sources, one close to Trump and the other a US official.
But after Trump’s lawyer certified that all classified materials had been removed from Mar-a-Lago, investigators discovered that there may, in fact, be even more classified documents at the Florida residence because they had spoken with a handful of individuals familiar with where and where. how documents are stored in the complex. It is unclear whether these people are employees of Trump or the Mar-a-Lago club.
On Sunday afternoon, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Senator Mark Warner and Vice Chairman Senator Marco Rubio asked the Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence to provide the committee the classified documents that were seized in the search of Mar a Lago, and an “assessment of the potential risks to national security as a result of its mismanagement”.
The News from New York first reported on Trump’s lawyer’s certification of the removal of classified material from Mar-a-Lago.
Asked for comment on the signed document, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich responded: “Like all Democrat-fabricated witch hunts before, the water in this unprecedented and unnecessary raid is carried by a media willing to run with suggestive leaks, anonymous sources, and no concrete facts. The Biden administration thought it could ‘get Trump,’ instead, they’ve been exposed as the very people who turn democracies into dictatorships.”
