FBI retrieved top secret documents from Trump’s Florida home

Judy Woodruff:

A federal judge has unsealed and made public the search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

A review of the warrant and the list of items removed from Trump's property reveals that the FBI collected over 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, as well as handwritten correspondence on Monday. Some of those were classified as top-secret, information that should never be outside of a secure government facility.

The former president did not oppose the unsealing of the documents. And in a statement released today, he asserts that he not only declassified the information, but also that the lengths the FBI went to search his property were not necessary.

In his words — quote — "All they had to do was ask."

We want to bring in one of the reporters who initially broke the story today. She is Sadie Gurman of The Wall Street Journal and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.

Hello to both of you. Thank you for joining us.

Sadie Gurman, let me start with you.

Just to clarify this, which government agency was looking for these documents or material?

Sadie Gurman, The Wall Street Journal:

So this all started when the National Archives notified the Justice Department that within about 15 boxes it had collected from Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House was some serious national security information.

So they referred the matter to the Justice Department for investigation. And that has sort of prompted this sort of incredible back and forth that we are seeing, which culminated this week in the search and in the release of the search warrant.

So, ultimately, the Justice Department came looking for any sort of remaining classified documents that were at Mar-a-Lago, and they found quite a few, as the warrant that we saw today revealed.

Judy Woodruff:

And so there's been a lot thrown around about what was in these documents.

What is known about what was there, for example, nuclear information about nuclear weapons? What is known about what was found?

Sadie Gurman:

So, we actually know very little from this warrant, in and of itself.

But what we do know is that there were 11 sets of classified documents contained within these boxes, that — and some of which were considered top-secret and openable only in a very secure government facility.

That classification pertains to things like military secrets, defense secrets, information that would be critical to our national security interests. So, certainly something like nuclear information would be classified at that level.

But the search warrant itself does not actually detail what is inside of those boxes. But it offers some pretty tantalizing glimpses into what investigators are looking at and what they will be poring over for the next few weeks.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Sadie Gurman, what's known about why they had to do this?

Because, as we just reported, the former president is saying he had declassified these documents. And he also went on to say all they had to do was ask. So which was it?

Sadie Gurman:

Well, we — certainly, the former president's team is portraying this as a heavy-handed and aggressive move by the Justice Department.

But to the federal prosecutors who have been working to try to get this information, the search was a culmination of a months-long effort to get — to get returned this material, after several steps in which they tried to get it and then still believed that there was more classified information contained on the premises.

We know that in — that they had been in negotiations with the Trump team and that, in June, the Justice Department filed a subpoena to get still more classified information out of the president's private club. And then, after that, we know that there was somebody familiar with the storage of these papers who believed that there was still more classified information at Mar-a-Lago that had not been retrieved and that the president and his staff were still holding on to there.

So, from the Justice Department standpoint, this was the end result of a lot of hard work to get these documents back. From the Trump team's perspective, they were saying, we were cooperating. Why are you taking this sort of aggressive approach?

Judy Woodruff:

Right.

And, Renato Mariotti, from what we know, what can we say about whether DOJ, the Department of Justice, and FBI followed procedures as they should have in doing all this?

Renato Mariotti, Former Federal Prosecutor:

It appears to me that they not only followed procedures, but they actually went the extra mile to be accommodating to the former president.

I will say that, if there was top-secret classified documents in my home or in your home, I don't think we would have had the lengthy discussions, subpoena and some of the discussions that Sadie had. None of that would happen. There would be no polite conversation.

I do think there would be an execution of a search warrant much earlier in — down the line.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Renato Mariotti, the reporting here, what we see from this receipt is that they list three possible criminal violations, the Espionage Act, an obstruction statute, and the law against destruction or altering of documents.

So what does that tell us that they were looking for?

Renato Mariotti:

Well, I think the most interesting of the group is 1519, the — what you dubbed the obstruction statute.

That one — ordinarily, what I would suggest if I saw that on a search warrant, I would think that the — that, actually, the Justice Department was looking for evidence of obstruction of justice, was looking for, for example, the concealment of records that might actually be inculpatory in some way.

I have charged the statute when I was a federal prosecutor. I have seen it in private practice since. And that's usually what it means. However, I mean, it is a broad statute. And I think one of the questions we have to be asking here is whether or not they are defining — using that statute in a broader sense, because they really just wanted to get that information back in government hands.

Judy Woodruff:

And I think the question on everyone's mind is, what does this mean, Renato Mariotti, in terms of whether the former president could be charged with some criminal violation?

Renato Mariotti:

I think it means — I would say a couple of things.

First of all, I think there's certainly a possibility that the Justice Department's focus here is merely to get these documents back, as it was explained by Sadie just a moment ago, very important secret documents that the government would want to have in its possession.

However, if they wanted to go forward and bring charges, this is much more plausible and, frankly, stronger than many of the potential legalities that are bandied about regarding the former president.

And it's simply because there are not a lot of good reasons why one would have this information. It would be very difficult to explain to a jury why you had this information. And the run-up to the execution of the search warrant, all the discussions between the former president's team and the Justice Department, would actually help to prove the state of mind, in other words, to undercut the defense you had shown a moment ago, Judy, where he said, if you wanted to documents, you could — all they had to do is ask.

Of course, they did ask the former president's team. And if he tried to point the finger at them, you would have to waive privilege in order to do so.

Judy Woodruff:

Well, that's what I want to — I want to ask you, Renato Mariotti, the same question I asked Sadie Gurman.

And that is, will we — is there a way we can know to what extent the Trump team was cooperating and to what extent they were resisting request to turn over this information? We're getting two completely different stories here.

Renato Mariotti:

Well, we can just use some common sense, OK?

And the common sense is that the Justice Department if, the reporting is accurate by Sadie and others, there was some discussions and a subpoena before the search warrant was executed. If the Justice Department had everything that they needed before the search warrant was executed, they would have never needed to bother with a search warrant.

And when they executed the search warrant, there would have been nothing to find. So, I think, on its face, it's apparent that the cooperation was not where it needed to be from the former president and his team.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Sadie Gurman, just quickly, back to you.

You mentioned, they will be looking at this — these documents for a few weeks. What are you hearing about how long it may take for them to go through and see what's here?

Sadie Gurman:

Well, if we have seen anything from this Justice Department, it's that they're very meticulous and deliberative.

And I think that this is just the start of what is sure to be a very long and ongoing investigation. And I think that they will be poring over these documents for some time and trying to figure out what they have, and whether they need to mitigate any sort of losses in terms of what's been out there.

So I think that they're just getting started. And we have been given a pretty — a significant glimpse, but yet, at the same time, kind of a small one into what all that they will be looking at and considering in the weeks to come.

Judy Woodruff:

Sadie Gurman of The Wall Street Journal, Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor, thank you both.

Renato Mariotti:

Thank you.

Sadie Gurman:

Thank you.