Trump claims FBI agents 'stole' three of his passports during raid at Mar-a-Lago

15 August 2022, 22:44

Donald Trump has claimed the FBI "stole" three of his passports during a raid at his Mar-a-Lago estate last week.

Taking to his Truth Social social media account, the former US President wrote: "Wow. In the raid by the FBI or Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never before seen in our country. Third World."

US citizens who are regular flyers are allowed more than one blue passport, he may also own a red passport for official government travel and a black 'diplomatic' passport issued during his time in the White House.

It is not know why the passports were withheld by the FBI and whether or not they consider the billionaire a flight risk.

The Mar-a-Lago search warrant served on Monday was part of an ongoing justice department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Mr Trump's home in Palm Beach, Florida, earlier this year.

The National Archives had asked the department to investigate after saying 15 boxes of records it retrieved from the estate included classified records. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified information.

Read more: Donald Trump being investigated under Espionage Act, unsealed search warrant reveals

It comes as a US federal judge said they will decide as soon as Friday whether to grant the department of justice's request to unseal the warrant that authorised the FBI to search former president Donald Trump's Florida estate.

Attorney general Merrick Garland said there was "substantial public interest in this matter," and Mr Trump backed the warrant's "immediate" release.

The decision on whether to unseal the records lay with US magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the same judge who signed off on the search warrant.

The justice department had until Friday afternoon to tell the judge whether Mr Trump's lawyers agree or disagree with the proposal to make it public.

In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump wrote: "Not only will I not oppose the release of documents ... I am going a step further by encouraging the immediate release of those documents."

He continued to describe the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago as "unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary".

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Mr Trump himself has been given at least some of the records the government was seeking to unseal, but he and his lawyers have declined, so far, to make them public.

The justice department's request is striking because such documents traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation.

But the department appeared to recognise that its silence since the search had created a vacuum for bitter verbal attacks by Mr Trump and his allies, and that the public was entitled to hear the FBI's side about what prompted Monday's action at Mr Trump's home.

"The public's clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favour of unsealing," said a motion filed in federal court in Florida on Thursday.

Should the warrant be released, it could disclose unflattering information about Mr Trump and about FBI scrutiny of his handling of sensitive government documents just as he prepares for another run for the White House.

During his successful 2016 campaign, he pointed frequently to an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over whether she mishandled classified information.

To obtain a search warrant, federal authorities must prove to a judge that probable cause exists to believe that a crime was committed.

Mr Garland said he personally approved the warrant, a decision he said the department did not take lightly given that standard practice where possible is to select less intrusive tactics than a search of one's home.

In this case, according to a person familiar with the matter, there was substantial engagement with Mr Trump and his representatives before the search warrant, including a subpoena for records and a visit to Mar-a-Lago a couple of months ago by FBI and Justice Department officials to assess how the documents were stored.

Neither Mr Trump nor the FBI has said anything about what documents the FBI might have recovered, or what precisely agents were looking for.

Trump, who for years has lambasted the FBI and sought to sow distrust among his supporters in its decisions, said the warrant was served and the search conducted despite his co-operation with the justice department over the search.

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said that his "attorneys and representatives were cooperating fully" before the search, and that government officials "could have had whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, if we had it".

The attorney general also condemned verbal attacks on FBI and justice department personnel over the search.

Some Republican allies of Mr Trump have called for the FBI to be defunded. Large numbers of his supporters have called for the warrant to be released hoping they it will show that he was unfairly targeted.

"I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked," Mr Garland said of federal law enforcement agents, calling them "dedicated, patriotic public servants".