Files Seized From Trump Are Part of Espionage Act Inquiry

Federal agents removed top-secret documents when they searched the residence of former President Donald J. Trump in Florida on Monday as part of an investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws, according to a search warrant released Friday.

FBI agents seized a total of 11 sets of documents, including some marked “classified/TS/SCI” — shorthand for “top secret/sensitive departmental information,” according to the inventory of materials seized in the search. Information categorized in this way is intended to be viewed only in a secure government facility.

It was the latest stunning revelation in a series of investigations revolving around his efforts to retain power after losing the election, his business practices and, in this case, his handling of government materials he took with him when he left the White House.

The search results revealed that material classified as a top national secret was being stored at an unsecured Mar-a-Lago resort owned and occupied by a former president who has long shown a disregard for the careful handling of classified information.

The documents released on Friday also for the first time made clear the gravity of the possible crimes being investigated in an investigation that has drawn condemnation from prominent Republicans to the Justice Department and the FBI and fueled the anger of Mr. Trump, a likely 2024 president. .candidate.

In total, agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents and three sets of classified documents, the inventory shows. Also, FBI agents took files related to the pardon of Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime aide to Mr. Trump, and material on French President Emmanuel Macron — along with more than a dozen boxes labeled only with numbers.

The disclosure of the search warrant and the inventory clarified the stakes of the showdown between the Justice Department, which says it intends to enforce federal law at the highest levels, and a former president whose rule-breaking behavior includes demonstrating a proprietary view of material that rightfully belongs of the government.

It is not clear why Mr. Trump apparently chose to stick with material that would ignite another legal storm around him. But last year, he told close aides that he considered some presidential documents his personal property. Speaking about his friendly correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump said, “They’re mine,” according to a person familiar with the exchange.

Although the FBI’s inventory of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago showed that numerous files were marked as “top secret,” Mr. Trump said on Friday that he had declassified all of the materials. Presidents have broad authority to declassify documents, although usually when that happens, those markings are removed.

But even if Mr. Trump had declassified the information before leaving office, none of the three potential crimes cited by the department in seeking the warrant depend on whether a mishandled document was deemed classified.

The order said agents would seek the material as they investigate potential violations of the Espionage Act, which prohibits the unauthorized retention of defense-related information that could harm the United States or help a foreign adversary — a standard written by Congress before the creation of the modern classification system.

He also cited a federal law that makes it a crime to destroy or conceal a document to obstruct a government investigation, and another law that prohibits the unlawful taking or destruction of government records or documents.

Having a search warrant does not mean that the Department of Justice has decided to bring criminal charges against someone. Mr Trump has repeatedly said he has done nothing wrong.

A federal court in Florida unsealed the search warrant and inventory Friday after a request from the Justice Department a day earlier to make them public. Sections of the warrant and accompanying inventory were previously reported in The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times also obtained them before they were published.

The warrant appears to have given agents wide latitude in searching for materials deemed improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago, allowing access to the “45th office” and “all storage rooms and any other rooms or areas” on the premises, which could be used to store documents.

The most informative and sensitive document — the Justice Department’s application for the warrant, which likely includes an affidavit detailing the evidence that convinced a judge he had probable cause to believe the search would turn up evidence of crimes — is not among the documents of the department asked to print. It’s unlikely to go public anytime soon, if at all.

The papers provided little answer to several fundamental questions about the all-day search, including its timing. This happened after months of negotiations between the department and the former president’s lawyers.

The investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act represents a previously unknown and potentially significant dimension of an investigation initiated by the National Archives.

The law includes several provisions that could apply to Mr. Trump’s case, especially if he is later found to have been grossly negligent in preserving the materials or knew that the information in his possession could harm of U.S. interests and yet refused to hand it over to investigators, said Mary McCord, a former senior official in the Justice Department’s national security division.

“We’re talking about highly classified documents with the potential to seriously harm US national security, including by benefiting foreign agents,” said Ms. McCord, now executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Defense.

The release of the search warrant helped clarify what is known about why Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, following the advice of the Department of Homeland Security, felt compelled to search the former president’s home.

The search was carried out as part of a government effort to account for documents that one person briefed on the matter said were related to some of the most highly classified programs run by the United States.

The person told The Times that investigators were concerned about materials that included some of what the government calls “special access programs,” a designation typically reserved for highly sensitive operations conducted by the United States abroad. or for tightly controlled technologies and capabilities.

The Washington Post reported that some of these materials may have been related to classified documents “related to nuclear weapons” that could be part of the designation of special access programs.

In January, Mr. Trump turned over to the National Archives 15 boxes of materials he illegally took with him when he left office. The archives subsequently identified classified material in the boxes and referred the matter to the Department of Justice, which later convened a grand jury.

But as Monday’s search results appear to indicate, other government materials remain at Mar-a-Lago. Why Mr. Trump did not return it along with the 15 boxes he gave to the archives in January is not clear. But at some point the Justice Department learned about it and issued a subpoena this spring demanding the return of some materials.

The subpoena’s existence suggests the department tried methods other than a search warrant to account for the material before taking the politically explosive step of sending FBI agents to Mar-a-Lago without warning.

Jay Bratt, the department’s top counterintelligence officer, traveled with a small group of other federal officials to Mar-a-Lago in early June.

There, they met with Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, and toured a basement storage room where the former president had stored materials brought with him from the White House. Mr Brat subsequently emailed Mr Corcoran and told him to further secure the documents in the storage area with a stronger padlock.

Federal investigators then subpoenaed surveillance footage from the club that could have given officials an idea of ​​who was coming in and out of the storage area, according to a person familiar with the matter.

During the same period, investigators were in contact with a number of Mr. Trump’s aides who knew how he stored and moved documents around the White House and who still work for him, three people familiar with the matter said.

At least one witness provided investigators with information that led them to want to further press Mr. Trump for material, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Federal officials believed this summer that Mr. Trump had not turned over all the materials that left the White House with him at the end of his term, according to three people familiar with the investigation.

Last Friday, the Department of Justice filed a search warrant. Early Monday morning, FBI agents arrived at Mar-a-Lago.

Katie Benner contributed reporting.