AP reported that the documents show how Trump’s retention of and failure to return top secret government documents, despite months of recovery efforts by officials, exposes the former president to new legal trouble.
An FBI agent, on the first page of the affidavit, sought a judge’s permission for a warrant to search Trump’s property and wrote:
Meanwhile, Trump insisted that he fully cooperated with government officials and further rallied members of the Grand Old Party behind him, calling the search a politically motivated witch hunt intended to damage his re-election prospects.
On Monday, 22 August, Trump sued the US government over the raid conducted by the FBI at his Florida estate in the same month.
In his lawsuit, Trump urged the court to prevent the bureau from reading the seized documents until a special court official was assigned to review them.
The lawsuit also mentioned that “President Donald J Trump is the clear frontrunner in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary and in the 2024 General Election, should he decide to run.”
It also said that law enforcement was a “shield” that protects Americans and cannot be used as a “weapon” for political purposes.
(With inputs from AP.)