Trump announces return of Mar-a-Lago FBI-seized classified documents

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
Today 08:26

The US president says the documents will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library.

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This image, contained in the indictment against Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla (Justice Department via AP)

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that boxes of classified documents seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago residence during an investigation into possible misconduct have been returned to him, adding that he intends to display them in his presidential library in the future.

Trump stated that the boxes, which contained top-secret documents he had been accused of unlawfully retaining after leaving the White House following his first term, were returned by the Justice Department, now under the leadership of his own appointees.

The Department "just returned the boxes that Deranged Jack Smith made such a big deal about," he wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to the special counsel who had led the case against him.

"They are being brought down to Florida and will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library," the US president indicated, without specifying whether all the original documents had been returned.

Trump reiterated his claim that he "did absolutely nothing wrong" and characterized the case against him as a politically motivated witch hunt.

The FBI had raided Mar-a-Lago in 2022 in an effort to recover the classified documents, which special counsel Smith had accused Trump of illegally storing at the Florida estate after leaving office in 2021.

Photographs had shown the top-secret documents—including records from the Pentagon and the CIA—piled haphazardly and unsecured in a bathroom at the club.

Trump had allegedly obstructed multiple attempts by the previous administration of Joe Biden to retrieve them.

The prosecution was still ongoing when Trump returned to office on January 20. Nine days later, Smith dropped the case, citing a Justice Department policy prohibiting the indictment or prosecution of a sitting president, and subsequently resigned from the department.