Trump Requests FBI Return Privileged Records They Seized

Former President Donald Trump said he wants any privileged records seized during the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago returned to him.

The declaration was made not in court but on Trump’s social media platform Sunday morning after Fox News reported agents seized boxes containing records covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege from the former president’s Florida residence.

TRUMP CLAIMS ‘STANDING ORDER’ DECLASSIFIED RECORDS AS SOON AS THEY LEFT OVAL OFFICE

“Oh great! It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged ‘attorney-client’ material, and also ‘executive’ privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,” Trump said on Truth Social. “By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!”

Sources told Fox News that Trump’s team asked the Justice Department if it would support an independent special master to review the records, but the agency said it would oppose the request. The DOJ and FBI declined to comment, the news outlet said.

Andrew McCarthy, the former chief assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, said on Fox News that Trump could make a motion under the rules of criminal procedure to get his property back, but offered some words of caution.

“I’d be a little leery to do that if I thought they were investigating me because if you take a position and then they charge you, you’re kind of locked into what you said,” McCarthy said. “So if he doesn’t absolutely need that material back, I think I’d lay low in the tall grass for a while and see what they do.”

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FBI agents recovered 11 sets of classified information, with some marked as top secret, among 20 boxes of items, during the raid on Monday, search warrant documents unsealed on Friday show. The unsealed documents also show the former president is being investigated for a potential Espionage Act violation and possible obstruction of justice.

Trump insists he declassified records and has denied any wrongdoing.