Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former US President Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, people familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post on Thursday.
Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands.
The people who described some of the material that agents were seeking spoke on the condition of anonymity. They did not offer additional details about what type of information the agents were seeking, including whether it involved weapons belonging to the United States or some other nation.
The sources also did they say if such documents were recovered as part of the search. A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.
Earlier on Thursday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that he personally approved the decision to search Mar-a-Lago residence and is asking a judge to unseal the warrant.
“The department does not take such a decision lightly,” Garland said in his first public comments about the search.
House Democrats have applauded the search of Mar-a-Lago as a step toward accountability for the former President.
Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence and all of Florida’s top GOP politicians, have condemned the search.
On Wednesday, Trump suggested that FBI agents might be "planting" evidence at Mar-a-Lago.
"The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
"Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting,'" he added.