The warrant also pointed to 18 U.S. Code 2071 on “concealment, removal, or mutilation generally” and 18 U.S. Code 1519 on “destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy.” The latter relates to potential obstruction of justice.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the warrant to be unsealed after the Justice Department told the court that Trump wasn't objecting to it being made public.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said: “The Biden administration is in obvious damage control after their botched raid where they seized the President’s picture books, a ‘hand written note,’ and declassified documents.” He called it “outrageous.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter.” He also announced that the Justice Department requested permission from the federal court to unseal the court-approved search warrant that authorized its raid.
“The public's clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing,” the DOJ said in its court filing.
The Monday search by the FBI was reportedly related to boxes of materials Trump brought back with him to his Florida resort after leaving office. The National Archives and Records Administration said some presidential records in 15 boxes obtained from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year included materials marked as classified.
Earlier Friday, Trump pushed back on reports the FBI recovered 11 sets of classified information from Mar-a-Lago, claiming he had “declassified” everything before leaving office.
“Number one, it was all declassified. Number two, they didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request.”