Materials marked “top secret”, binders of photos, and information about the “President of France” all made the list of inventory seized from former US president Donald Trump’s Florida estate by the FBI.
The contents of the sought-after document were finally revealed after Mr Trump’s lawyers decided not to block its release by a federal court.
The search warrant was also unsealed.
It confirmed federal agents have been investigating potential crimes related to the mishandling of government secrets.
Signed by a federal judge, the warrant cited three criminal laws, including one contained in the Espionage Act, outlawing unauthorised possession of certain national security information.
Here’s what we know so far.
Top secret documents, Roger Stone and the ‘French President’
The property receipt, which was given to Mr Trump’s lawyers after the search, listed about 20 boxes in total, including 11 sets of classified documents.
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Some of the seized documents are marked as “classified/TS/SCI”, which is shorthand for “top secret/sensitive compartmented information”.
The receipt does not specify what’s in the documents.
But the US government has three tiers for classifying sensitive information: confidential, secret and top secret.
The highest level of security clearance is required to access sensitive compartmented information.
Such documents are only meant to be stored and viewed in special secure facilities — certainly not in golf clubs.
Members pay to access Mar-a-Lago, which means anything stored there could, in theory, be vulnerable to America’s foreign adversaries, or their spies.
Mr Trump denied the Washington Post’s report the FBI was potentially seeking documents related to nuclear weapons, and claimed his opponents had planted the story.
“Nuclear weapons is a hoax … Same sleazy people involved,” he wrote on social media.
The other seized items include binders of photos, a leather-bound box of papers, and a single handwritten note.
One of the first items on the inventory is curiously described as “info re: President of France”.
It’s not clear what the information is or if it’s about the current French president, Emmanuel Macron.
But Mr Macron and Mr Trump were sworn into office the same year and their initially warm relationship quickly turned frosty.
In 2017, Mr Macron wined and dined his US counterpart at the top of the Eiffel tower, but disagreements over foreign policy led the fast friends to fall out.
Within a year, Mr Trump was regularly blasting him on Twitter.
The list also contained paperwork related to the pardon of Roger Stone, one of Mr Trump’s long-time allies.
In 2020, Mr Trump granted clemency to the self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” who was found guilty of obstructing justice, witness tampering and multiple counts of lying to Congress.
The FBI was given strict rules about searching Mar-a-Lago
The Southern District of Florida also unsealed the search warrant granting federal law enforcement access to Mar-a-Lago.
The sprawling property was described as a 58-bedroom mansion with 33 bathrooms on a 17-acre estate.
Given the political sensitivity of the search, the warrant specified where federal agents could go, and gave a window of time to conduct the search: on or before August 19, between the hours of 6am and 10pm.
Federal judge Bruce Reinhart granted access to the “45 Office”, referring to the office for the 45th president; all storage rooms; and any room or building on the estate Mr Trump and his staff could feasibly store boxes or documents.
Rooms occupied by third parties — such as private guest suites booked by club members — were designated off-limits.
The warrant also listed the items that could be seized, including “all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed” in violation of three criminal laws under Title 18 of the United States Code: 793, 2071 and 1519.
Section 793 was first passed under the Espionage Act in 1917.
To obtain a federal search warrant, law enforcement presented the judge with a document known as a search warrant affidavit.
The affidavit, which remains sealed, contains the evidence of “probable cause”.
That means the judge felt there was sufficient reason to believe a crime was committed and evidence of that crime was where the agency planned to search.
What does this mean for Donald Trump?
Shortly after the seven pages of documents were officially released, Mr Trump issued a statement claiming he declassified everything he took with him from the White House.
“It’s all declassified,” he wrote.
“It was in a secured storage, with an additional lock on as per their request.”
As commander-in-chief, the president does have the power to classify and declassify most information at will.
And Mr Trump did so regularly while in power, even tweeting a top-secret image of the aftermath of an accident at an Iranian space facility.
But without a formal, written record confirming he declassified the materials, the assertion would be difficult to prove.
His lawyers may argue his word, in this instance, is law.
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Ultimately, it may not matter though, as the criminal laws cited in the search warrant apply to the mishandling of certain government documents, even if they’re declassified.
A violation of the Espionage Act, certainly the most serious crime listed on the warrant, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The other laws, 2071 and 1519, make it illegal to conceal or damage official US documents and are punishable by up to three and 20 years in prison, respectively.
Here’s what the FBI were looking for and what they took from Donald Trump’s Florida home, according to the search warrant and seizure log & Latest News Update
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