Former President Donald Trump said that the FBI took three of his passports during a raid on Mar-a-Lago last week, describing the extraordinary search as an attack.
Last week, the FBI executed a search order at the former president's private house in Palm Beach, Florida, and recovered classified materials, including those tagged as top secret. Trump is displeased.
Trump Says FBI 'Stole' His Passports
Over the weekend, sources familiar with the inquiry told Fox News Digital that the FBI took boxes containing data protected by attorney-client privilege and perhaps executive privilege during its raid. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the former president's team was informed that boxes labeled A-14, A-26, A-43, A-13, and A-33, as well as a set of documents - all of which can be seen on the final page of the FBI's unsealed property receipt - contained information protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Attorney-client privilege is a legal privilege that protects conversations between an attorney and their client. As per insiders, certain data may be protected under executive privilege, which allows the president of the United States and other officials in the executive branch to conceal some sensitive types of advice and communication between the president and senior advisers.
At this moment, it is unknown if the papers contain contacts between the former president and his private attorneys, White House counsel during the Trump administration, or a combination of the two, according to Fox News. On Thursday, Trump's administration claimed it had contacted a Department of Justice official to relay the message. Despite his plea for calm, Trump continued to slam the FBI and defend his supporters' conduct in the interview, claiming they are not going to stand for another hoax"and branding the FBI's previous investigation into Russian influence in 2016 election as a witch hunt.
On his social media platform TruthSocial on Sunday evening, Trump, 76, termed the search an abuse in law enforcement and a sneak attack on democracy. On Monday, he stated on the blog that agents had taken his three passports during the investigation last week. The FBI did not confirm the accusation right away.
Rudy Giuliani Told He Is Target of Criminal Investigation
According to a bulletin, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have seen an increase in violent threats against law enforcement, judiciary, and government personnel in the days since the warrant was executed, including a specific threat to place a so-called Dirty Bomb in front of FBI headquarters.
Last Thursday's attempted attack on an FBI field office in Cincinnati, which resulted in the suspect being shot dead, appeared to highlight the genuine danger lurking behind the threats. The raid has caused schisms in the Republican Party, with hardcore Trump supporters seeking to defund the Gestapo FBI, while others have moved to distance themselves from the former president amid accusations that nuclear secrets were discovered at Mar-a-Lago. Meanwhile, Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has been informed that he is a target of the criminal investigation into election involvement in Georgia, The Telegraph reported.
The raid on Monday was part of a larger inquiry into materials Trump took with him when he departed the White House. All such records must be given over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of each presidential administration, according to the Presidential Records Act.
The statute proclaimed all presidential and vice presidential documents to be federal government property, with 'custody, management, and preservation handed to the National Archives after a president leaves office. Earlier this year, Trump returned 15 cartons to the Archives. Agents walked through storage space at Mar-a-Lago and locations in Trump's own house on Monday, removing additional evidence during a day-long search, as per Daily Mail.
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