A federal judge has unsealed and made public the search warrant for
former President Donald Trump's mar a Lago estate. A review of the
warrant, and a list of items removed from Trump's property reveals
that the FBI collected over 20 boxes of items binders of photos as
well as handwritten correspondence on Monday, Some of those items
were classified as top secret information that should never be outside
of a secure government facility.
The former president did not oppose the unsealing of the documents.
And in a statement released today, he asserts that he not only declassified
the information but also that the length the FBI went to search his
property were not necessary. In his words, quote all they had to
do was asked. We want to bring in one of the reporters who initially
broke the story today, she Sadie Gurman of The Wall Street Journal.
And former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. Hello to both of you.
Thank you for joining us, Sadie Gurman. Let me start with you just
to clarify this which government agency was looking for these documents
or material.
So this all started when the national Archives, um, notified the
Justice Department that within about 15 boxes it had collected from
Mar a Lago after Trump left. The White House was some serious national
security information. Um, so they were for the just referred the
matter to the Justice Department for investigation. And that is sort
of prompted this in sort of incredible, back and forth that we are
seeing, which culminated this week in the search and in the release
of the search warrant. So ultimately, the Justice Department
Came looking for any sort of remaining classified documents that
were at Mara Lago, and they found quite a few as the weren't that
we saw today revealed And so there's been a lot thrown around about
what was in these documents. What is known about what was there,
for example, nuclear information about nuclear weapons? What is known
about what was found.
So we actually know, Um, you know, very little from this warrant
in and of itself, But what we do know is that there were 11 sets
of classified documents contained within these boxes. Um, that and
and some of which were considered top secret. Uh and opentable only
in very secure government facility. That classification pertains
to things like military secrets, Defense secrets, information that
would be critical to our national security interests, so certainly
something like
Nuclear information would be contained classified at that level.
But the search warrant itself does not actually detail what is inside
of those boxes. But it offers some pretty tantalizing glimpses into
what investigators are looking at and what there will be poring over
for the next few weeks and Sadie Gurman what's known about why they
had to do this, because, as we just reported, the former president
is saying he had just declassified.
These documents, and you also went on to say all they had to do was
ask. So which was it?
Well, what we certainly you know, the former president's team is
portraying this as a heavy handed and aggressive move by the Justice
Department. But to the federal prosecutors who have been working
to try to get this information, the search was a culmination of a
month long effort to get you know to to get returned this material
after several steps in which they tried to get it, and then still
believe that there was more classified information contained on the
premises. We know that in, uh, you know that they had been in negotiations
with the Trump team.
Latin June, the Justice Department filed a subpoena to get still
more classified information out of the
Ah, the president's private club. And then after that, we know that
there was somebody familiar with the storage of these papers who
believed that there was still more classified information at Mara
Lago that had not been retrieved and that the president and his staff
were still holding on to their So, uh, from the Justice Department
standpoint, this was the end result of a lot of hard work to get
these documents back from the Trump team's perspective. They were
saying, You know, we were cooperating. Why are you taking this sort
of aggressive?
And Renato Mariotti is from what we know. What can we say about whether
DOJ Department of Justice and FBI followed procedures as they should
have been doing all this?
It appears to me that they not only followed procedures, but they
actually went the extra mile to be accommodating to the former president.
I will say that if there was a top secret classified documents in
my home or your home, I don't think we would have had the lengthy
discussions subpoena and some of the discussions that Sadie had.
None of that would happen. There would no be beetle polite conversation.
I do think there would be an execution of a search warrant much earlier
in the double line. Marriott of the reporting. What we see from this
receipt is that they list three possible criminal violations, the
Espionage Act and obstruction statute.
And the law against destruction or altering of documents. So what
does that tell us that they were looking for?
Well, I think the most interesting of the group is 50 is 15 19 the
when you dump the obstruction statute that one ordinarily what I
would suggest, if if I saw that on the search warrant, I would think
that the that actually the justice rumor was looking for evidence
of obstruction of justice was looking for, for example, the concealment
of records that might actually be inculpatory. In some way. I've
charged the statue and as a federal prosecutor, I've seen it in private
practice, since, uh
And that's usually what it means. However, I mean, it is a broad
statute, and I think one of the questions we have to be asking here
is whether or not they are defined using that statute, in a broader
sense, because they really just wanted to get that information back
and government ends. And I think the question on everyone's mind
is. What does this mean Renato Mariotti in terms of whether the former
president could be charged
With some criminal violation.
I think it means it's a couple of things. First of all, I think there
is certainly a possibility that the Justice Department's focus here
is merely to get these documents back as it was explained by Sadie's
just a moment ago, very important secret documents that the government
would want to have in his possession. However, if they wanted to
go forward and bring charges, this is much more plausible and frankly,
stronger than many of the potential legalities that are bandied about
regarding the former president.
And it's simply because, um, there are not a lot of good reasons
why one would have this information. It would be very difficult to
explain to a jury why you had this information and the run up to
the execution of the search warrant. All the discussions between
the former president's team and the Justice Department would actually
help to prove the state of mind. In other words, you know to undercut
the defense you had shown a moment ago. Judy where he said if you
wanted the documents, you just say all I had to do was ask.
Of course, they did ask the former president's team, and if he tried
to point the finger at them, you would have to waive privilege in
order to do so. Well, that's what I want. I want to ask. You were
not a Marriott of the same question. I asked Sadie Gurman, and that
is Will we Is there a way we can know to what extent the Trump team
was cooperating?
And to what extent they were resisting request to turn over this
information. We're getting two completely different stories here.
Well, we can just use some common sense, okay? And the cabin's sense
is that, um, the Justice Department If the reporting is accurate,
do I? Sadie and others. There was some discussions and a subpoena
before the the search warrant was executed. If the Justice Department
had everything that they needed before the search warrant was executed.
They would have never needed to bother with the search warrant. And
when they executed the search warrant, there would have been nothing
to find. So I think on it
Face. It's apparent that the the cooperation was was not where it
needed to be from the former president and his team.
And Sadie Gurman just quickly back to you. You mentioned it. They'll
be looking at this these documents for a few weeks. What are you
hearing about how long it may take for them to go through and see
what's here.
Well, if we've seen anything from this Justice department is that
they're very meticulous and deliberative. And I think that this is
just the start of what is sure to be a very long and ongoing investigation,
and I think that they will be poring over these documents for some
time and trying to figure out what they have and you know whether
they need to mitigate any sort of losses in terms of what's been
out there. So I think that they're just getting started, and Reed
have been given a pretty, you know a significant glimpse, but yet
at the same time
I'm kind of a small one into what all
You know, it's that they will be looking at and considering in the
weeks to come
Sadie Gurman of the Wall Street Journal. Renato Mariotti, former
federal prosecutor. Thank you both.