The Justice Department asked a Florida judge to unseal the warrant FBI agents used to search former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home along with a list of items they took from the property. The former president said he wouldn’t oppose the release of the court documents, encouraging their “immediate release,” while adding he viewed the process as partisan, the Wall Street Journal reports. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” adding that DOJ "does not take such a decision lightly.” Trump said FBI agents "raided" his home and broke into a safe. The search was part of an investigation into his handling of classified information. News organizations asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart to unseal the search documents.
Agents were concerned that additional sensitive information had remained at Mar-a-Lago even after Trump’s aides had relinquished some information to investigators. The Washington Post reports that agents were seeking classified documents involving nuclear weapons. An inventory of the items seized could shed light on what agents were looking for why federal investigators pursued the search. The search came after at least two rounds of attempts by investigators to secure documents at Mar-a-Lago through negotiations and a subpoena. The search provoked a political firestorm, with Republican lawmakers demanding an explanation for the unprecedented search of a former president’s home. Trump and his allies say the search was a politically motivated stunt by Justice Department officials. Garland defended federal law enforcement officials. DOJ told the court that, “The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing."