WASHINGTON - The property receipt of items recovered from FBI agents who searched former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort shows that agents recovered a trove of top secret and other heavily classified documents.
Federal agents removed 11 sets of classified documents, including some that were labeled top secret, according to documents obtained by NBC News. The FBI took several items including a handwritten note, information about the President of France, an executive grant of clemency for Trump ally Roger Stone and binders of photos.
NBC News and other news organizations obtained the documents shortly before a federal judge was expected to approve their public release.
The Justice Department later filed a notice that Trump is not opposed to the unealing of the search warrant. The judge in the case still needs to rule on the DOJ motion to unseal the warrant before it is made public.
Trump made a statement on his social media platform that he did not oppose disclosing the documents to the public.
I will 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, but I am going to go a step further 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, much as they have done for the last 6 years, Trump said. Release the documents now! In a statement on Friday, Trump spokeswoman Taylor Budowich dismissed details in the documents from what he called an outrageous search and a botched raid where they seized the President's picture books, a 'hand written note, and declassified documents. The search warrant shows that investigators were hunting for illegally possessed items including any physical documents with classification markings and any government and or presidential records from Trump's time in office, in addition to any evidence of a snooper, destruction or concealment of any government and or presidential records with classification markings. Trump made a statement saying everything he had was declassified. Trump and his lawyers have had the search warrant and documents since Monday, but initially resisted calls to make them public.
Attorney General Merrick Garland filed a motion Thursday to get a judge's approval to release the warrant and property receipt, arguing that it was in the public's interest to see the records after Trump revealed that the search had taken place on Monday.
A source familiar with the matter told NBC News that Trump received a federal grand jury subpoena this past spring for sensitive documents that the government believed he retained after his departure from the White House.
The source said that the subpoena was related to documents that Trump s legal team discussed with Justice Department officials at a previously reported meeting on June 3.
A separate source confirmed an earlier Wall Street Journal report, telling NBC News that someone familiar with documents inside Mar-a-Lago told investigators there may have been more classified documents at the club than were initially turned over, leading in part to the search on Monday.