The search warrant for Trump's Mar-a-Lago home has been released. Here's what it says.
A federal judge on Friday released the warrant to search former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home after the Justice Department filed a motion calling for it to be made public.
FBI agents searched Trump's home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, but the Justice Department did not comment on the search until Thursday, when Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference that the department had requested the warrant be unsealed. Trump supported the release.
The document showed FBI agents retrieved classified documents titled "top secret," as well as the grant of clemency for Trump ally Roger Stone. It also indicated the investigation was examining possible violations of the Espionage Act.
Sources familiar with the matter have told USA TODAY that the investigation related to the search is related to allegations Trump removed classified documents from the White House at the end of his term.
Read the search warrant: Read the FBI's search warrant for Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property
Here's what was in the search warrant.
What's in the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago?
Where could the FBI search? The warrant stipulated that the FBI could search the "45 Office," storage rooms and any other room that Trump and his staff could have used and where boxes or documents could be stored. It did not allow for searching the rooms of third parties, such as Mar-a-Lago members.
What could be seized? The warrant allowed the FBI to seize any documents possessed illegally in violation of the Espionage Act. That included boxes of documents with classification markings; information about the retrieval, storage or transmission of national defense or classified material; any presidential records created during Trump's term; and any information about the alteration, destruction or concealment of government records or documents with classification markings.
What was taken? The FBI seized about two dozen boxes of documents, including 10 sets of documents labeled "secret," "top secret" and "confidential." It also retrieved "classified/TS/SCI documents," an abbreviation for "top secret/sensitive compartmented information."
Was anything taken that wasn't classified? Also among the items the FBI seized were the grant of clemency for Stone, information about the president of France, binders of photos, a leather-bound box of documents and other records.
Do we know what information was in the documents? The actual nature of the information was not detailed in the warrant.
What crimes are being investigated? The document indicates the federal investigation is examining possible violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction, according to the warrant.
More: Trump Mar-a-Lago estate warrant unsealed by federal judge in FBI search
What Trump allies and others are saying:
Trump's circle: Trump and his allies seized on the period between when the warrant was signed, Aug. 5, and when the search was carried out, Monday. "Sure makes it clear that what they were looking for wasn’t really serious if you could take the weekend off before acting on it," Rudy Giuliani tweeted.
Trump also has claimed he declassified the material taken to Mar-a-Lago.
J. William Leonard, former head of the U.S. National Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office and the government's overseer of classification of records, called it an extraordinary risk to take classified material to Mar-a-Lago. "It just boggles my mind in terms of how did we ever get to this point where, you know, we're concerned about the busboy catering wedding (at Mar-a-Lago) gaining access to nuclear secrets.”
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Contributing: Josh Myer and Kevin Johnson
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump search warrant: What document to search Mar-a-Lago estate says
