The search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, which sparked a backlash among his political supporters, resulted in the recovery of a trove of classified and highly sensitive national security documents, released court documents revealed the manufacture. The warrant, signed by a federal judge on August 5, called for the FBI to search Trump’s office, as well as “all storage facilities” and areas used by the former president and his staff. It also asked federal agents to seize “all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, proceeds of crime and other items” that may have violated the law in any of three possible ways. The first involved the “collection, loss or transmission of defense information” under the Espionage Act — a serious crime related to national security — while the second and third involved the removal, destruction, alteration or concealment of federal documents. The court filing also contained a list of items recovered by federal agents at Trump’s property. This included information about the “president of France,” the “pardon” of Trump ally Roger Stone, binders of photographs, a handwritten note — and, most importantly, various top secret and classified documents that require special government attention. The search warrant underscored the seriousness of the investigation facing Trump. The FBI and Justice Department had no additional comment beyond filing the search warrant with the court. The Justice Department had requested the public release of the warrant, but Trump also ultimately supported its release. The warrant was given to his lawyers on the day of the search. The revelation that Trump kept top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — including at least one involving a foreign leader — will bolster claims by the Justice Department and the FBI that they acted properly in their decision to search his home. The Washington Post reported late Thursday that some of the documents were related to nuclear weapons, although the FBI, Justice Department and National Security Council declined to comment on that report.

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In a series of posts on Truth Social on Friday, Trump derided the investigation and any suggestion of wrongdoing as a politically motivated prosecution. “The nuclear weapons issue is a farce, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a farce,” he wrote, referring to the investigation that special counsel Robert Mueller led into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election while he was in office. Trump also continued to blast the FBI – “the same ungodly people involved” – and said US law enforcement could have obtained the documents at Mar-a-Lago at any time. “All they had to do was ask.” But prosecutors have been in talks for weeks with Trump and his team about the importance of producing the documents — to the point where they issued a subpoena for them earlier this year.

Even with the release of the search warrant and inventory list, the motives behind the Mar-a-Lago search will not be fully known until an affidavit in support of the warrant is released or charges are filed by federal prosecutors. The Justice Department had declined to comment on the Trump investigation for three days after the probe, sticking to its policy of not commenting on pending cases. But on Thursday Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a brief statement after criticism that he had given no explanation for the move. Garland did not provide any new details about the investigation, but said he had personally approved the investigation and would not take such a step “lightly.” He also strongly defended the work of the FBI and Justice Department after they became the focus of intense criticism from Trump and his allies on America’s hard right. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee and California Democrat, said the documents presented Friday suggested the investigation was warranted. “If the reports are accurate and contained in these documents it is some of the most classified information our government has. . . then it would explain a lot about why the department and the FBI took the step of getting a warrant to retrieve the documents,” he said. “Every day that information of such a classification is in an unsecured location is a risk to our national security.” But Republicans remained dubious. “Where’s the affidavit? We still need to see the affidavit,” tweeted Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina.