Former President Donald Trump authorized the release of an FBI warrant late Thursday night that was used to search his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.
The news comes after federal agents spent the majority of the day at the Trump’s home, while he was out of state, searching for alleged classified documents that he was supposed to send back to the National Archives earlier this year.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference Thursday afternoon that he personally authorized the FBI search warrant and that the Department of Justice had moved to unseal the warrant. The former president had until 3 p.m. on Friday to inform the court if he objected to the unsealing of the warrant.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me, much as they have done for the last 6 years,” Trump said in a statement. “This unprecedented political weaponization of law enforcement is inappropriate and highly unethical.”
“The world is watching as our Country is being brought to a new low, not only on our border, crime, economy, energy, national security, and so much more, but also with respect to our sacred elections!” Trump added. “Release the documents now!”
Trump’s statement came after The Washington Post claimed in an article that federal officials were allegedly searching for highly classified documents on “nuclear weapons” when they raided former president’s home.
The Washington Post claimed in a report that those familiar with the matter did not offer any specific details on whether the alleged documents on nuclear weapons were about weapons that were possessed by the United States or a foreign nation, and they did not disclose what was recovered during the search.
“If that is true, it would suggest that material residing unlawfully at Mar-a-Lago may have been classified at the highest classification level,” said David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section, which investigates leaks of classified information. “If the FBI and the Department of Justice believed there were top secret materials still at Mar-a-Lago, that would lend itself to greater ‘hair-on-fire’ motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible.”
Investigators reportedly recovered classified material, some of which was labeled “top secret.”