Looks like we can get to hear what the FBI were looking for at Mars a Lago -
but only if Trump agrees. The ball is in his court.
Why didn't the FBI just ask Trump to return the documents he (illegally) took from the White House ? Well they did - repeatedly. Donald Trump as usual just ignored earlier discussions with the FBI.
US Attorney-General Merrick Garland personally approved search of Donald Trump's home for suspected illegal records
Posted 4h ago4 hours ago, updated 26m ago26 minutes ago
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Merrick Garland "personally approved" the decision to search Donald Trump's Florida estate.
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US Attorney-General Merrick Garland says federal agents searched former president Donald Trump's Florida estate as part of an investigation into whether he illegally removed records from the White House as he was leaving office.
Key points:
- The Justice Department has asked a court to unseal the search warrant
- It is not clear if Donald Trump's legal team will object to the release of the warrant
- Trump supporters and some Republicans have accused Democrats of targeting the former president
Mr Garland, the nation's top law enforcement official, said he personally approved the decision to search Mr Trump's home.
He also said the Justice Department had asked the federal court in Florida to unseal the search warrant due to "substantial public interest" in the wake of Mr Trump revealing the search was happening.
US Attorney-General Merrick Garland says federal agents searched Donald Trump's Florida estate as part of an investigation into whether he illegally removed records from the White House as he was leaving office.
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FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home followed tip classified records were there – report
Sources say justice department officials worried records were being held unlawfully at the former president’s Florida estate
Federal investigators searched
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach after an informant told them he might be storing classified records at his private club, the Wall Street Journal has
reported.
The search on Monday reportedly came two months after federal law enforcement officials came to
Mar-a-Lago to talk about boxes of government documents that were being stored there.
.. The Journal’s report chronicled discussions between justice department officials and Trump’s lawyers over these records.
On 3 June, a high-ranking justice department official and three FBI agents came to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago house “to discuss boxes with government records sitting in a basement storage room along with suits, sweaters and golf shoes”.
Trump and his team seemed unaware of the possible gravity of the situation during this meeting, the newspaper said. “The former president even popped into the June 3 meeting at Mar-a-Lago, shaking hands,” the Journal reported. A source told the Journal that Trump said: “‘I appreciate the job you’re doing … anything you need, let us know.’”
The FBI sent a missive several days later asking for a more secure lock to be placed on the storage room’s door. “In the following weeks, however, someone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club,” the Journal reported.
The potential presence of these records follows the National Archives’ removal of 15 boxes earlier this year. Officials with the justice department were skeptical that Trump’s team was being forthright about the records that were still at his home, a source told the newspaper.
Sources say justice department officials worried records were being held unlawfully at the former president’s Florida estate