Last updated: August 26, 2022 4:31 pm ET.
First posted: August 26, 2022 2:43 pm ET.
A heavily redacted copy of an FBI affidavit explaining the validity of the agency’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate reveals boxes recovered from the home contained classified information, including documents marked “top secret” .
The affidavit released on Friday provides no new details about the 11 sets of secret recordings found during the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Instead, we are talking about a separate batch of 15 boxes that the National Archives and Records Administration had …
A heavily redacted copy of an FBI affidavit explaining the validity of the agency’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate reveals boxes recovered from the home contained classified information, including documents marked “top secret” .
The affidavit released on Friday provides no new details about the 11 sets of secret recordings found during the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Instead, it is a separate batch of 15 boxes that the National Archives and Records Administration seized from a home in January.
During a mid-May inspection of these 15 crates, FBI agents found:
• 184 documents with classification marks.
• 25 top secret documents.
• 67 documents marked “confidential”.
• 92 classified documents.
The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s handling of classified materials and presidential records.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers asked a federal judge to suspend the FBI’s review of documents seized earlier this month in Mar-a-Lago until a neutral special master can be appointed to review the records.
Read: Trump is looking for a special master to review the confiscated Mar-a-Lago document; Trump-appointed judge sends request for more work
Trump said in a statement that “ALL documents have been previously declassified” – although he did not provide evidence to support this claim – and described the tapes as “illegally removed from my home.”
The Biden White House said it was not notified of the August raid on Mar-a-Lago. On Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the affidavit, but declined to comment.
“We understand the interest in this. We are not going to comment on any underlying materials, any content related to the ongoing investigation,” she told reporters.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.