FBI agents on Monday executed a search warrant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and home in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a statement from the former U.S. president.
Trump said in a statement released to reporters and posted on his Truth Social social media platform that his “beautiful home” was “under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.”
“They even broke into my safe!” the statement read.
Trump didn’t say what the agents were looking at or if they had removed any materials from Mar-a-Lago. This resort is where he calls home and his political headquarters since he left the White House in 2021.
Dena Iverson, spokesperson at Justice Department, declined comment to discuss the search. This includes whether Attorney General Merrick Garland authorized the search.
The FBI spokespeople did not respond to messages Monday evening seeking comment.
The New York Times, citing unnamed sources close to the investigation, reported the FBI’s search was focused on materials Trump allegedly took with him to Florida after the end of his presidency, including classified documents. Sources, including Reuters and Associated Press, confirmed that the search was conducted for classified documents.
The U.S. Justice Department has launched an early-stage investigation into Trump’s removal of official presidential records to Mar-a-Lago, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters in April.
The investigation comes after the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in February notified Congress that it had recovered about 15 boxes of White House documents from Trump’s Florida home, some of which contained classified materials.
The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee at that time announced it was expanding an investigation into Trump’s actions and asked the Archives to turn over additional information. Trump previously confirmed that he had agreed to return certain records to the Archives, calling it “an ordinary and routine process.”
“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump said in his statement Monday.
He claimed the event was orchestrated by “Radical Left Democrats” who did not want him to run for president again in 2024 — a campaign he has repeatedly teased but has not yet officially launched.
“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries,” Trump’s statement added. “Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.”
There are several U.S. laws that regulate classified information. One law, which can be punished with up to five years imprisonment, makes it a crime not to remove such records or keep them in an unauthorized place. It is also a crime to intentionally or grossly negligently mishandle classified information.
A search warrant does not necessarily indicate that criminal charges are imminent or even expected. However, federal officials seeking one must prove that probable cause exists that a crime occurred.
Trump is under pressure from multiple criminal and civil investigations in multiple States. These investigations are looking at everything, from his business practices to the efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
The Justice Department, which is probing the widespread campaign to keep Trump in office and deny Biden’s victory, has also reportedly begun to look at Trump’s own actions during the post-election period.
The congressional committee investigating Trump supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol has also focused its attention on his conduct in the aftermath.
And a district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia is investigating whether Trump and his close associates sought to interfere in that state’s election, which was won by Biden.
—With files from Reuters
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