FBI seized top secret documents in Trump estate search; Espionage Act cited

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An aerial view of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen on Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo)
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Updated 13 August 2022
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FBI seized top secret documents in Trump estate search; Espionage Act cited

  • Agents took more than 30 items, including 20-plus boxes
  • Trump says the seized records were “all declassified“

WASHINGTON: The FBI recovered “top secret” and even more sensitive documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to court papers released Friday after a federal judge unsealed the warrant that authorized the sudden, unprecedented search this week.
A property receipt unsealed by the court shows FBI agents took 11 sets of classified records from the estate during a search on Monday.
The seized records include some marked not only top secret but also “sensitive compartmented information,” a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets that if revealed publicly could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to US interests. The court records did not provide specific details about information the documents might contain.
The warrant says federal agents were investigating potential violations of three different federal laws, including one that governs gathering, transmitting or losing defense information under the Espionage Act. The other statutes address the concealment, mutilation or removal of records and the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The property receipt also shows federal agents collected other potential presidential records, including the order pardoning Trump ally Roger Stone, a “leatherbound box of documents,” and information about the “President of France.” A binder of photos, a handwritten note, “miscellaneous secret documents” and “miscellaneous confidential documents” were also seized in the search.




The receipt for property seized by the FBI at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida is shown in this photo taken on Aug. 12, 2022. (AP)

Trump’s attorney, Christina Bobb, who was present at Mar-a-Lago when the agents conducted the search, signed two property receipts — one that was two pages long and another that is a single page.
In a statement earlier Friday, Trump claimed that the documents seized by agents were “all declassified,” and argued that he would have turned them over if the Justice Department had asked.
While incumbent presidents generally have the power to declassify information, that authority lapses as soon as they leave office and it was not clear if the documents in question have ever been declassified. And even an incumbent’s powers to declassify may be limited regarding secrets dealing with nuclear weapons programs, covert operations and operatives, and some data shared with allies.
Trump kept possession of the documents despite multiple requests from agencies, including the National Archives, to turn over presidential records in accordance with federal law.
The Mar-a-Lago search warrant served Monday was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Trump’s home earlier this year. The Archives had asked the department to investigate after saying 15 boxes of records it retrieved from the estate included classified records.
It remains unclear whether the Justice Department moved forward with the warrant simply as a means to retrieve the records or as part of a wider criminal investigation or attempt to prosecute the former president. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified information, with both criminal and civil penalties, as well as presidential records.
US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the same judge who signed off on the search warrant, unsealed the warrant and property receipt Friday at the request of the Justice Department after Attorney General Merrick Garland declared there was “substantial public interest in this matter,” and Trump said he backed the warrant’s “immediate” release. The Justice Department told the judge Friday afternoon that Trump’s lawyers did not object to the proposal to make it public.
In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “Not only will I not oppose the release of documents ... I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents.”

The Justice Department’s request was striking because such warrants traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation. But the department appeared to recognize that its silence since the search had created a vacuum for bitter verbal attacks by Trump and his allies, and felt that the public was entitled to the FBI’s side about what prompted Monday’s action at the former president’s home.
“The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing,” said a motion filed in federal court in Florida on Thursday.
The information was released as Trump prepares for another run for the White House. During his 2016 campaign, he pointed frequently to an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over whether she mishandled classified information.
To obtain a search warrant, federal authorities must prove to a judge that probable cause exists to believe that a crime was committed. Garland said he personally approved the warrant, a decision he said the department did not take lightly given that standard practice where possible is to select less intrusive tactics than a search of one’s home.
In this case, according to a person familiar with the matter, there was substantial engagement with Trump and his representatives prior to the search warrant, including a subpoena for records and a visit to Mar-a-Lago a couple of months ago by FBI and Justice Department officials to assess how the documents were stored. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
FBI and Justice Department policy cautions against discussing ongoing investigations, both to protect the integrity of the inquiries and to avoid unfairly maligning someone who is being scrutinized but winds up ultimately not being charged. That’s especially true in the case of search warrants, where supporting court papers are routinely kept secret as the investigation proceeds.
In this case, though, Garland cited the fact that Trump himself had provided the first public confirmation of the FBI search, “as is his right.” The Justice Department, in its new filing, also said that disclosing information about it now would not harm the court’s functions.
The Justice Department under Garland has been leery of public statements about politically charged investigations, or of confirming to what extent it might be investigating Trump as part of a broader probe into the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The department has tried to avoid being seen as injecting itself into presidential politics, as happened in 2016 when then-FBI Director James Comey made an unusual public statement announcing that the FBI would not be recommending criminal charges against Clinton regarding her handling of email — and when he spoke up again just over a week before the election to notify Congress that the probe was being effectively reopened because of the discovery of new emails.
The attorney general also condemned verbal attacks on FBI and Justice Department personnel over the search. Some Republican allies of Trump have called for the FBI to be defunded. Large numbers of Trump supporters have called for the warrant to be released hoping they it will show that Trump was unfairly targeted.
“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said of federal law enforcement agents, calling them “dedicated, patriotic public servants.”
Earlier Thursday, an armed man wearing body armor tried to breach a security screening area at an FBI field office in Ohio, then fled and was later killed after a standoff with law enforcement. A law enforcement official briefed on the matter identified the man as Ricky Shiffer and said he is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol and may have been there on the day it took place.


India launches attack on 9 sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir

Updated 3 sec ago
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India launches attack on 9 sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir

The Indian armed forces launched "Operation Sindoor," hitting nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted, the statement added.


Germany’s Merz voices ‘concern’ on Gaza, to send foreign minister to Israel

Updated 18 min 30 sec ago
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Germany’s Merz voices ‘concern’ on Gaza, to send foreign minister to Israel

  • Friedrich Merz said FM Johann Wadephul would travel to Israel at the weekend and that ‘we are currently preparing this trip together’
  • Friedrich Merz: ‘Israel must remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations’

BERLIN: Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday voiced “considerable concern” about the Gaza conflict and said he would send his foreign minister to Israel this weekend.

The conservative Merz, 69, long a strong supporter of Israel, said that Israel has a right to fight the Palestinian militant group Hamas but must follow international law.

Merz, who took office on Tuesday, said Germany’s new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul would travel to Israel at the weekend and that “we are currently preparing this trip together.”

Israel’s security cabinet has approved plans for the “conquest” of Gaza, an official said Monday, and Israel’s military has said expanded operations would entail displacing “most” of its residents to the southern part of the territory.

Merz, speaking to public broadcaster ARD, said: “We view the developments of the last few days with considerable concern.”

“Israel has the right to defend itself against the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and everything that followed,” said Merz.

“But Israel must also remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations, especially as this terrible war is raging in the Gaza Strip, where this confrontation with Hamas terrorists is necessarily taking place.”

He added that “it must be clear that the Israeli government must fulfil its obligations under the international law of war and that humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must be provided.”


Belarus opens case against a 78-year-old activist who became a symbol of the pro-democracy movement

Updated 34 min 36 sec ago
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Belarus opens case against a 78-year-old activist who became a symbol of the pro-democracy movement

  • Retired geologist Nina Bahinskaya was charged with repeatedly violating Belarus’ laws
  • Bahinskaya is one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus’ pro-democracy movement

TALLINN: Authorities in Belarus opened a criminal case against a 78-year-old activist who became the face of the country’s pro-democracy protests in 2020, a rights organization said Tuesday.
Retired geologist Nina Bahinskaya was charged with repeatedly violating Belarus’ laws on holding and organizing protests, Belarus’ Viasna human rights center said.
Authorities accused Bahinskaya of repeatedly walking the streets of the Belarusian capital displaying symbols striped with white, red and white: the same colors used by Belarus’ pro-democracy opposition. If found guilty, the activist faces up to three years in prison.
Bahinskaya is one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus’ pro-democracy movement, which reached its peak during mass protests in the summer of 2020, shortly after the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was declared president for a sixth consecutive term.
Observers widely condemned the vote as rigged. In March, Lukashenko was sworn in to a seventh term.
Bahinskaya’s defiance and caustic tongue quickly has made her a popular opposition figure. When told by police in 2020 that she was violating a government ban on unauthorized demonstrations, she simply responded, “I’m taking a walk” — a snappy reply that was adopted by thousands and chanted at demonstrations.
“I noticed that the riot police more rarely beat protesters when they see elderly people among them,” she told The Associated Press at the time. “So I come out to protest as a defender, an observer and a witness. I’m psychologically and intellectually stronger than the police. Even among those who detained me, there were people who respected me.”
The 2020 protests triggered a wave of police violence from Belarusian security services, and political repression that has engulfed the country of 9.5 million people.
More than 65,000 people have been arrested, thousands have been beaten by police, and independent media and nongovernmental organizations have been shut down and outlawed, prompting condemnation and sanctions from the West.
Belarus holds about 1,200 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. At least six political prisoners have died in prison, according to human rights activists.
Bahinskaya has been previously detained on multiple occasions, collecting fines totaling 7,200 Belarusian rubles (about $2,400).
As part of the case against her, Bahinskaya was detained in early May and taken for a forced psychiatric examination, Viasna said. In April, UN experts reported that Belarusian authorities had resumed the Soviet practice of forced psychiatric treatment as a punishment for political dissent, and that at least 33 cases of punitive psychiatry had already been recorded against political prisoners.
“Bahinskaya is a symbol of resistance to totalitarianism within the country, and it is important for the authorities to break her,” Viasna representative Pavel Sapelka told the AP. “This is a show case against an elderly person who has dedicated her entire life to the fight for freedom.”
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives and works in exile in Lithuania, also condemned the case.
“Today, the regime is still afraid of Nina Bahinskaya’s courage,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “For decades, Nina has stood up to tyranny.”


Putin tells Pezeshkian Russia wants ‘fair’ US-Iran nuclear deal

Updated 06 May 2025
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Putin tells Pezeshkian Russia wants ‘fair’ US-Iran nuclear deal

  • The latest round of the talks between Tehran and Washington, initially set for May 3, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing ‘logistical reasons’ for the delay
  • Russia has deepened its military and diplomatic ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022

MOSCOW/TEHRAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow wants a “fair” nuclear deal between the US and Iran and was ready to help advance talks, the Kremlin said.

“The Russian side confirmed its readiness to contribute to the promotion of this dialogue with the goal of reaching a fair agreement based on the principles of international law,” the Kremlin said in a readout of a call between the leaders.

The latest round of the talks between Tehran and Washington, initially set for May 3, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons” for the delay.

The two countries have held three rounds since April 12, their highest-level contact since the US withdrew from a landmark deal with Iran in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term as president.

Russia has deepened its military and diplomatic ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022. 

The two countries, both under massive Western sanctions, signed a strategic partnership earlier this year. 

Most recently, Moscow has sent two planes to help put down a fire after a deadly explosion in Iran’s biggest commercial port.

Russia earlier confirmed its readiness to help find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Washington and Tehran, and to play any role in the talks.

A fourth round of talks is likely to take place over the weekend in Muscat, with Iranian state media pointing to May 11 as a probable date.

Cautioning that the timing was not yet finalized, an Iranian source close to the negotiating team said: “The talks will take place over two days in Muscat, either on Saturday and Sunday or Sunday and Monday.”

Top US negotiator Steve Witkoff also said Washington was trying to hold the next round of talks this weekend, according to the news site Axios, a day after Iran’s Foreign Ministry reiterated

US President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, has threatened to bomb Iran if no agreement is reached with his administration to resolve the long-standing dispute.

Western countries say Iran’s nuclear program is geared toward producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes.


Indonesia bus crash leaves at least 12 dead

Updated 06 May 2025
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Indonesia bus crash leaves at least 12 dead

PADANG: A bus carrying 34 passengers sped out of control on a downhill road and overturned in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and leaving others injured, police said.

The inter-province bus was on its way to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, from Medan in North Sumatra province when its brakes apparently malfunctioned near a bus terminal in West Sumatra’s Padang city, said Reza Chairul Akbar Sidiq, the director of West Sumatra traffic police.

He said police were still investigating the cause of the accident, but survivors told authorities that the driver lost control of the vehicle in an area with a number of steep hills in Padang after the brakes malfunctioned.

The 12 bodies, including those of two children, were mostly pinned under the overturned bus, Sidiq said. All the victims, including 23 injured people, were taken to two nearby hospitals, he said.

Thirteen of the injured were treated for serious injuries, Sidiq said. The driver was among those in critical condition.

Local television footage showed the mangled bus on its side, surrounded by rescuers from the National Search and Rescue Agency, police and passersby as ambulances evacuated the injured victims and the dead.

Road accidents are common in Indonesia because of poor safety standards and infrastructure.