Reports monitored on Cable News Network, CNN, said that the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI, executed a search warrant on Monday at the Mar-a-Lago resort of former President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida.
The news channel, relying on what “three people familiar with the situation say”, revealed that the search, which reportedly spanned hours, was part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents, that the agency thought may have been brought to Florida.
The former President, who has been widely criticized for spreading a lie about the 2020 presidential election won by President Joe Biden, confirmed that FBI agents were at Mar-a-Lago, saying: “they even broke into my safe.”
“My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” he announced in a statement Monday evening.
Trump was not in Florida at the time that the search warrant was executed.
According to CNN, the search began early Monday morning (local time in America) and “law enforcement personnel appeared to be focused on the area of the club where Trump’s offices and personal quarters are, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
The report further disclosed that the Justice Department declined to comment to CNN, as did the White House. But a White House official said it was not notified about the search.
CNN said it has reached out to the FBI for comment.
The Justice Department has two known active investigations connected to the former President, one on the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and January 6, 2021, and the other involving the handling of classified documents.
The National Archives, charged with collecting and sorting presidential material, has previously said that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort – including some that were classified.
In April and May, the CNN report recalls, aides to Trump at Mar-a-Lago were interviewed by the FBI as part of the probe into the handling of presidential records, according to a source familiar with the matter.