A law enforcement source verified to CBS News that the passports of former President Donald Trump that were obtained by the FBI during the investigation of his South Florida estate last week have been returned to the former president.
The passports were returned to Trump, according to the source, after being discovered by a “filter team,” a group of federal investigators who check papers acquired during the execution of a search warrant for privileged or irrelevant information.
The FBI stated in a statement that while executing search warrants, the bureau “follows court-ordered search and seizure procedures and returns things that are not required for law enforcement purposes.”
In a tweet published about 1:30 p.m. ET on Truth Social, the former president’s social media network, Trump claimed the FBI “stole” three passports from Mar-a-Lago last week, one of which was allegedly expired.
“This was an unprecedented degree of violence against a political opponent in our country,” he added. The Third World!
Taylor Budowich, a spokeswoman for Trump, revealed on Twitter some hours later an email sent to the former president’s attorneys by Jay Bratt, a senior Justice Department official, informing them that the passports had been seized and would be returned.
“We’ve discovered that the agents confiscated three passports belonging to President Trump, including two expired and one active diplomatic passport. They are being returned and will be available for pickup at WFO at 2:00 pm today “Bratt said, referring to the bureau’s field office in Washington.
Monday at 12:49 p.m. ET, the email was sent to Trump’s attorneys, before the former president’s assertion that the FBI stole his passports. The law enforcement source also confirmed the authenticity of the email from Bratt, the chief of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
FBI agents seized 11 sets of classified documents during last week’s search of Mar-a-Lago, including boxes containing records marked “secret,” “top secret,” “confidential,” and “classified/TS/SCI,” or top secret/sensitive compartmented information, according to the search warrant and property receipt unsealed Friday by a federal magistrate judge in Florida.
The warrant and supporting documents also suggested that the president is being investigated for probable violations of three federal crimes, including the Espionage Act, and specifically the provision of that statute pertaining to the collection, transmission, or loss of defense material.
Since the FBI’s investigation, Trump has repeatedly lambasted the Justice Department and the FBI, saying without evidence that the search was a politically motivated strike aimed at President Biden’s potential rival in 2024.
CBS News has learned that weeks before the search, one of Trump’s attorneys signed a paper confirming that all classified items had been removed from Mar-a-Lago. On Friday, the former president claimed his legal team had been complying with federal inquiries pertaining to the records. According to two individuals, the certification followed a June 3 meeting between Justice Department officials and Trump’s attorneys at the South Florida resort, and a grand jury subpoena was also issued in the spring.
After the former president’s counsel confirmed that all classified materials had been removed from Mar-a-Lago, investigators discovered that there may still be additional classified materials there.
Trump has also asserted that certain records seized by the FBI were protected by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege, “which they should not have taken knowingly.” Bratt’s reference to filter agents, however, shows that the FBI is striving to ensure that federal prosecutors do not process confidential information outside the confines of the search order.