Some allies of former US President Donald Trump are urging him to publicly release surveillance footage of FBI agents executing a search warrant on his Mar-a-Lago residence, a proposal that has drawn mixed reaction inside his orbit, CNN reported on Wednesday.
The CCTV footage has been so closely held that aides to the former President aren't sure if he has seen it in full himself, said a person close to Trump.
"I don't think it's been shared by anyone outside of the attorneys," the person said.
Some of Trump's aides and allies have encouraged the former President to make some of the footage available to the public, believing it could send a jolt of energy through the Republican Party's base.
One person familiar with the conversations told CNN there have been discussions about featuring the August footage in campaign-style ads, believing the footage could bolster Trump's claims of political persecution.
Another person close to Trump said it's not a matter of if the former President and his team release any of the footage, but when, noting it could be released before he makes a campaign announcement.
CNN has reached out to FBI and Justice Department for comment.
This past Friday, a judge in Florida unsealed the search warrant for Trump’s home of Mar-a-Lago and related documents.
The warrant says that the FBI is investigating former US President Donald Trump for a potential violation of the Espionage Act.
Earlier reports said FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago removed no fewer than 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked as top secret and meant to be only available in special government facilities.
The FBI agents took around 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note and the executive grant of clemency for Trump’s ally Roger Stone, a list of items removed from the property shows.
On Monday, the US Justice Department said it opposes unsealing the affidavit that prosecutors used to obtain a federal judge's approval to search Mar-a-Lago.
"If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government's ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps," prosecutors wrote in their filing.
Trump, who asserted after the FBI raid that agents might be "planting" evidence at Mar-a-Lago, argued on Monday that the records taken by the FBI had been declassified.
"The country is in a very dangerous position. There is tremendous anger, like I've never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one – years of scams and witch hunts, and now this," Trump told Fox News. "If there is anything we can do to help, I, and my people, would certainly be willing to do that.”
The former President confirmed that his representatives had not heard back from the Justice Department on accepting his offer.
"There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country – at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times," he said.