AG Defends Trump Home Search, Moves to Make Details Public

At a brief news conference, Garland defended the FBI search at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate on Monday, saying he had personally approved it.

“The Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland told reporters.

Trump, who has a copy of the search warrant but has declined so far to reveal its contents, said late on Thursday he would not oppose the unsealing of the warrant.

He continued to assail the FBI search as “unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary.”

“Release the documents now!” he wrote, repeating his claim the search was an “unprecedented political weaponization of law enforcement.”

Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official, said Garland had “called Trump’s bluff” by putting the onus on the former president to object or consent to release of the document.

Garland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, did not provide details about the nature of the investigation that led to the search of Mar-a-Lago.

Several US media outlets earlier cited unidentified sources as saying that the inquiry was looking into possible mishandling of classified material, and on Thursday, The Washington Post reported that the agents were looking for documents related to nuclear weapons.

The Post said it was not clear whether such documents had been found.

Some 10 boxes of material were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, the Reuters news agency said, citing an unnamed source.

It is unclear at this point how much information would be included in the documents, if made public, or if they would encompass an FBI affidavit that would presumably lay out a detailed factual basis for the search. The department specifically requested the unsealing of the warrant as well as a property receipt listing the items that were seized, along with two unspecified attachments.