The FBI has returned records that its agents seized during a search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022, the White House said Friday, without clarifying whether classified documents were included in the boxes that were turned over.
“We are taking possession of the boxes today and loading them onto Air Force One,” said White House communications director Steven Cheung in a statement, falsely calling the FBI’s search of Trump’s Florida property “unlawful and illegal.”
Alina Habba, who now serves as counselor to the president, told reporters on Friday that the documents were going “back to where they belong” in Florida. When asked what the boxes contained, she said, “These are President Trump’s things. These are his items, and they needed to be returned to him.”
FBI agents executed a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021. Officials took 33 boxes of files from the property that day, despite Trump having claimed that he had turned over all classified documents.
Trump railed against the DOJ at the time, saying his property was “under siege” by the FBI and baselessly claiming the investigation was a politically motivated attack by the Biden administration. He has continued to claim over the years that the search was “illegal,” and first lady Melania Trump has similarly suggested it was “unconstitutional.”
The Justice Department has undergone a seismic shift since Trump’s return to office. The president has installed loyalists in top positions at the DOJ and fired employees who worked on both his classified documents and election interference cases. Trump hailed the return of the documents in a post on Truth Social Friday evening, saying they “will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library.” He once again repeated his claim that the federal charges against him were politically motivated. “I did absolutely nothing wrong,” he wrote.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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