Trump 'Respectfully' Requests FBI Return Seized Documents To Mar-A-Lago

The former president also slammed the FBI as "corrupt" for confiscating the material. Some of it was marked as classified and top secret, according to a warrant.
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Former President Donald Trump on Sunday publicly requested that documents seized from his Florida resort and home during a federal search this past week be returned, claiming that it includes confidential attorney and client communications.

“Oh great! It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged ‘attorney-client’ material, and also ‘executive’ privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,” he posted on his social media site, Truth Social.

“By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents immediately returned [sic] to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!” he wrote.

Trump appeared to be citing a Fox News report late Saturday that claimed, citing sources close to the investigation, that the material confiscated from his property includes documents covered by attorney-client privilege and “potentially executive privilege.”

The entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen Monday in Palm Beach, Florida.
The entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen Monday in Palm Beach, Florida.
via Associated Press

Trump in his post went on to attack the credibility of the FBI, stating that it has “a long and unrelenting history of being corrupt.”

The agency has faced an increase in threats following its search. On Thursday, a man armed with an AR-15 rifle threatened officials at an FBI building in Cincinnati and was killed in a shootout with police.

Roughly 20 boxes of items were removed from Mar-a-Lago last Monday, including 11 sets of classified documents, according to a warrant for the search. These items included documents that were marked top secret and designated to remain only in a secure government facility.

Trump has argued, without offering any supporting evidence, that he personally declassified the documents before leaving the White House.

Trump, seen Wednesday in New York City, has claimed that the material taken from his Florida home with a search warrant includes confidential attorney and client communications.
Trump, seen Wednesday in New York City, has claimed that the material taken from his Florida home with a search warrant includes confidential attorney and client communications.
STRINGER via Getty Images

His office also claimed in a statement read on Fox News Friday that Trump had a “standing order” during his presidency that “documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them.”

Despite this claim, one of Trump’s attorneys signed a statement in June declaring that all documents marked as “classified” at Mar-a-Lago had been returned to the government, The New York Times reported Saturday citing four people with knowledge of the document.

Because of the documents’ classification, Trump is under investigation for a possible violation of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice, and removing and destroying official documents, according to the FBI’s search warrant.

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