Then-President Donald Trump holds up papers during a White House press conference.
Alex Brandon/AP
The DOJ revealed new information about the items retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in a Tuesday court filing.
It said some were so sensitive that agents needed special clearance to see them.
Trump has claimed documents and were wrongly seized in the raid and wants them back.
Some of the documents retrieved by FBI agents in their raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate were so classified that agents needed special permission to view them, according to Justice Department court documents filed Tuesday.
The DOJ’s 36-page filing was in response to Trump’s request to have a third-party official, or “special master,” sift through the documents retrieved by the FBI from his Florida resort on August 8.
The DOJ in the docket described the highly classified nature of some of the material retrieved, efforts allegedly made by Trump’s aides to remove or conceal documents from the FBI, and the haphazard way documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago.
“In some instances, even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents,” the DOJ said.
In a photo submitted by the DOJ, documents marked “contains sensitive compartmented information up to HCS-P/SI/TK” were pictured by agents in Mar-a-Lago next to a box with an edition of “Time” magazine with Trump on the cover. “HCS” refers to intelligence from clandestine human sources, and is highly classified to ensure their security.
This image contained in a court filing by the DOJ on August 30, 2022, and redacted by in part by the FBI, shows a photo of documents seized during the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
Department of Justice via AP
Trump and his allies have railed against the FBI for searching through his personal belongings, as well as his wife Melania Trump’s closet, in their raid.
But in the Tuesday filing, the DOJ said that classified information had been jumbled up with Trump’s personal items, indicating how carelessly they were being stored.
“Evidence of commingling personal effects with documents bearing classification markings is relevant evidence of the statutory offenses under investigation,” the DOJ said.
Trump has sought to portray the search as politically motivated, and has applied to have the special master review the documents because he claims that many were covered by executive privilege and ought to be returned to him.
He has claimed that he broadly declassified the documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago before he left office.
The National Intelligence Director and Justice Department are conducting a review to establish potential national security risks from Trump having taken the documents.