One spokesperson for former President Donald Trump has highlighted an alleged email from a top DOJ email highlighting that the president’s passports were accidentally confiscated as part of the raid on his mansion in Florida that took place last week.
“In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump stated via a post on social media.
Norah O’Donnell, an anchor with CBS News, stated via a Twitter post that “[a]ccording to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports.”
Later, a spokesperson for Trump spoke out in direct response to her tweet by posting a screenshot of an alleged email from Jay Bratt, the Justice Department counterintelligence chief, that explained that the passports were in the process of being given back.
“We have learned that the filter agents seized three passports belonging to President Trump, two expired and one being his active diplomatic passport,” highlighted the screenshots. “We are returning them, and they will be ready for pickup at WFO at 2 pm today. I am traveling, but you can coordinate further with [redacted] copied above. Thanks.”
The social media posts from Trump seem to have taken place just after he was sent the alleged email that informed him that the stolen passports were being sent back.
Throughout the search which was authorized by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, federal investigators were able to recover sets of top secret documents, 3 sets of secret documents, and 3 sets of confidential documents.
The New York Times was told by multiple different sources that at least one of the members of the legal team for Trump signed a statement sent to the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this summer that expressed that all classified materials and boxes being stored inside the Florida home were not classified and that all classified materials had officially been sent back to the federal government in a timely manner. Agents were able to go through the storage area, along with Trump’s personal offices and his residence on the property.
This particular signed declaration, which goes along with the at least 11 sets of still-classified documents and materials that were found inside of his Florida home at Mar-A-Lago, could end up meaning that either Trump or his legal team could be in hot water for potentially directly lying on federal documents and to federal investigators.
