A report that FBI agents searched for classified documents related to nuclear weapons at Donald Trump's Florida resort could explain the urgency of the unprecedented operation at the home of an ex-President and takes his showdown with the Justice Department to a grave new level.
The account in The Washington Post could also undercut Republican lawmakers, who didn't wait for details of the case before criticizing a search they claimed was more typical of a tyrannical state. The latest development also further ups the stakes of an escalating legal battle after Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday called the former commander-in-chief's bluff and, in an unusual move, asked a court to unseal the search warrant and inventory of property taken from Trump's home.
The details in the Post report came on yet another extraordinary day that reprised the chaos and recriminations of Trump's presidency, and carved acrimonious new political divides ahead of the former President's likely run for the White House.
The Post cited people familiar with the investigation as saying that federal agents were looking for classified documents related to nuclear weapons, among other items, at Trump's resort. The people did not describe the documents in detail nor whether they related to nuclear arms belonging to the US or another nation. CNN has not independently confirmed the report.
But if it turns out that Trump did take such material from the White House, it would raise the question of why a former president would need such closely guarded secrets after leaving office. The possibility that such material would be held at an unsecured facility, where guests come and go and where it would be potentially vulnerable to penetration by a foreign intelligence service, would alarm government officials.
In the intensifying legal battle over the search, Trump has until 3 p.m. ET on Friday to officially signal whether he will contest Garland's move.
In a statement on his Truth Social network late Thursday, the former President said he would not oppose the release of documents related to the "unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary raid and break-in" of his home. He did not say exactly which documents he would be ready to see released. And the FBI search was not a break-in; it was legally authorized by a warrant approved by a judge who would have had to have found probable cause that a crime had been committed.