“Oh wonderful!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It was just learned that the FBI, in its now famous Mar-a-Lago raid, took boxes of ‘attorney-client’ privileged material, as well as ‘executive’ privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken.” Trump continued. “With a copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were obtained,” he added. “Thanks!” Citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation, Fox News reported Saturday night that the FBI seized five boxes containing information covered by attorney-client privilege as part of its emergency search of Trump’s Florida property on Monday. The network also reported that its sources told it that some records could be covered by executive privilege. The unsealed search warrant revealed that agents were authorized to seize documents or records marked classified or related to the “transmission of national defense information or classified material” as part of the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump violated the Espionage Act and other federal laws by keeping records at his Florida resort. An attached proof of ownership also unsealed Friday showed the FBI seized 33 items from Mar-a-Lago, including 11 sets of classified items. Trump has defended himself in the past by claiming he declassified the documents. Attorney-client privilege allows communications between an attorney and their client to remain private during an investigation, while executive privilege allows the president to keep certain communications from the other two branches of government private. But the last privilege is not absolute. During the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon that executive privilege cannot be used to suppress evidence “provably material in a criminal trial.” GOP Report Hits Biden Withdrawal From Afghanistan, Considers Midterm Review Crypto Community Divided Over Treasury Tornado Cash Sanctions Trump has used the defense in the past in attempts to block the release of records to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill in a separate investigation. A federal appeals court in December denied Trump’s claims of executive privilege to prevent the National Archives from turning over those records. The FBI declined to comment. The Hill also reached out to the Justice Department for comment. – Updated at 1:38 p.m
