As FBI agents arrived at Donald Trump’s Florida club on Monday morning to search for top-secret government documents — authorized by a federal judge and requested by the United States attorney general — the former president happened to already be huddled with his lawyers at Trump Tower in New York, a thousand miles to the north. They they were supposed to be preparing Trump will be impeached later this week on an entirely different matter, a political investigation into the Trump family business. But the meeting was interrupted by a phone call informing the former president of the extraordinary events unfolding at his Mar-a-Lago Club, said Ron Ficetti, his lawyer in New York. Trump and his close allies were quickly shocked by the events unfolding in Palm Beach, said people familiar with the day. Some were watching the agents through CCTV security cameras as they searched Trump’s office and personal rooms and a first-floor storage room, another of his lawyers, Christina Bobb, told Fox News. Distracted, Trump continued to jump on the phone, Fischetti said, trying to understand why the agents, dressed in khakis and polo shirts to cause less of a scene, were roaming the beach. ease had tried to describe the “winter White House,” which was mostly closed for the summer. So harrowing was the search that the normally cheerful Trump team stayed mum for much of the day — until 6:51 p.m., when Trump himself confirmed the raid with a bombshell statement calling it unwarranted and politically motivated. “They even broke into my safe!” he announced. The court-authorized search it was a remarkable moment even for Trump, who has has been under investigation by state and federal prosecutors almost continuously since he was sworn in in 2017. What began as a low-level dispute over Trump’s chaotic and haphazard record-keeping in the White House had turned into a deeply serious investigation into whether the former -The president had endangered national security by hoarding highly classified documents, some possibly related to nuclear weapons. The FBI searched Trump’s home for nuclear documents and other items, sources say The events of the past week — beginning with the raid and continuing with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s rare move Thursday to publicly defend the FBI from partisan criticism and misinformation, take personal responsibility for the investigation and announce that he wanted to be unsealed the warrant from the court — marked a turning point in the Justice Department’s stance toward Trump. Garland had vowed to erect a strong wall between politics and law enforcement and had faced heavy criticism from Trump critics for being too cautious in holding the former president accountable. Now he was the face of a law enforcement crackdown that threatened to further divide the nation, as some of Trump’s allies likened the FBI’s search to a political prosecution more common in a “banana republic” or even under Nazi rule. For Trump, the episode opened a new chapter in his troubled relationship with law enforcement, confirming that his vulnerabilities extended beyond the best publicized and ongoing investigations into his efforts to subvert the 2020 election and his personal business. According to the search warrant, agents at Mar-a-Lago were seeking evidence of three possible violations of federal statutes: a section of the Espionage Act that makes it a crime to possess or disclose national defense secrets without authorization, a law against destroying or concealing documents to prevent investigation and law against theft, destruction or mutilation of government records. Administration officials had worried as Trump left office that he presented what experts considered the perfect profile of a security risk: He was a disgruntled former employee with access to sensitive government secrets, poised to dismantle what he believed to be a deep state. catch him But Trump had spent years cultivating a growing distrust among his staunchest supporters of the agencies tasked with tracking those risks, the FBI and the Justice Department. Justice Department officials declined to comment on the document search or provide details of their findings, citing general confidentiality protocols for ongoing investigations. Trump spokesman Taylor Budowitz did not respond to questions for this article but shared a statement attacking “this unprecedented and unnecessary raid,” blaming the Biden administration and accusing the media of “suggestive leaks, unnamed sources and without hard evidence”. In the immediate aftermath of the investigation, Trump seemed to believe the FBI had played into his hands. Rather than expressing any concern, two people who spoke to him Monday night both said Trump was “optimistic,” convinced the Justice Department had overreached and would rally Republicans to his cause and help him regain the presidency in 2024. “It feels like a political coup for him,” said one friend, who spoke with Trump repeatedly during the week. Like many others interviewed for this article, the person spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the criminal investigation. By Friday, however, unsealed court records showed that agents had seized 11 sets of classified documents, among other things. Howls of protest from Republicans grew somewhat quieter, and people around Trump said his high-spirited mood turned dark at times.
A simmering investigation The fight over documents obtained from the White House when Trump left office had been going on for more than a year. “It was like a pot of water simmering very slowly and now it’s making this noise where it hits the burner,” said one person involved in the dispute. In the spring of 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration, the government agency charged by law with preserving the papers of former presidents, notified the Trump team of a problem. Examining material moved from the White House in the chaotic final days of Trump’s presidency, officials had noticed that some high-profile documents were missing. Trump’s correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which he described as “love letters.” A National Weather Service map of Hurricane Dorian, which Trump famously marked with a black Sharpie pen to extend into Alabama. According to the Presidential Records Act, the items belonged to the American people. The Archives asked for them back. People familiar with those initial talks said Trump was hesitant to return the documents, dragging his feet for months as officials fumed and eventually threatened to alert Congress or the Justice Department about his reticence. On Jan. 17 of this year, Trump relented, allowing an Archives contractor to load 15 boxes at Mar-a-Lago and move them north to a facility in Maryland. The boxes contained some of the notable items from the Trump presidency that Archives officials had sought. 15 Boxes: Inside the Long, Strange Journey of Trump’s Secret Files But as Archives officials sifted through the recovered documents, they began to suspect that some records were still missing. They also realized that some of the material returned was clearly classified, including highly sensitive signal information – intercepted electronic communications such as emails and phone calls of foreign leaders. All of this raised a disturbing possibility: Could there still be classified files hidden in Trump’s private club in Florida? Although presidents have unlimited power to declassify America’s secrets, they lose that power once they leave office. By February, Archives officials had formally referred the matter to the Department of Justice. The agency was already deeply involved in one of the largest criminal investigations in the nation’s history: an extensive investigation into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, inspired by Trump’s election-defeating rhetoric. Hundreds had been charged with storming the Capitol or helping to plan the rebellion. But Garland was under enormous pressure to also look into Trump’s role in sparking the uprising, as well as the campaign by the former president and his advisers to overturn the certified results. Now the attorney general faced a new dilemma: what to do about the missing documents. Before, During, After: A Washington Post investigation into the January 6 attack Garland — a former appeals court judge determined to avoid the mistakes of his predecessors in politically charged cases — declined to tip his hand on how the department might treat the 45th president. “We follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. That’s all I can say,” he told reporters who asked about Trump at an April briefing on an unrelated matter. “It is our longstanding policy not to comment on ongoing investigations. “The best way to undermine investigations is to say things out of court about how they’re going.” Choosing garland, President Biden had insisted he made a choice that would restore the department’s independence, a marked departure from the Trump administration, in which officials were largely expected to show loyalty to the president — and was publicly criticized when they did not. “You will not work for me,” Biden told his running mate. “You are not the President or the Vice President’s lawyers. Your faith is not in me. It is up to the law, the Constitution, the people of this nation to guarantee justice.” Jamie Gorelick, deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton who brought Garland on as her chief aide and considers a personal friend, said she was sure she was unaffected by the public criticism. “That wouldn’t motivate him one bit,” he said. “It’s close to the book. He would not consider politics. He just wouldn’t do it.” At first, Archives officials believed the FBI was not taking the documents issue seriously and became disillusioned, according to…
