at a later point. and if you go back to that period between june and august of this year, on monday, when that raid happened at mar-a-lago, we know that there was somebody talking to federal investigators, letting them know that they believed there were more documents down at mar-a-lago, potentially documents that were marked classified or contained sensitive national security information. and so that is what prompted this search that was executed by fbi officials on monday at the former president's primary residence. this has been building for quite some time, and it is interesting that all of this sort of happened between june and august of this year, because our sources have told us that after federal investigators arrived at mar-a-lago -- i'm sorry, after archives -- the national archives sent folks to mar-a-lago in january of this year to retrieve those 15 boxes that we know they eventually were returned to the government, this was slow burning for many months, and now, we're sort of getting this rush of information of what was actually happening behind the scenes, starting with that june meeting, and obviously, con

-- it cites a january 18th, 2021 cbs miami news article which says moving trucks were spotted at mar-a-lago. i mean, that's before the actual transfer of power took place. even though we know about this haphazard idea of things being moved quickly, there were already these moving trucks at mar-a-lago before donald trump's presidency actually ended. that's in a very heavily redacted portion of this affidavit, so we don't know what the context. but i think the time line is also somewhat important here. even though we should always keep our eyes on the big picture, donald trump was not supposed to have any presidential records stored back in mar-a-lago. he's supposed to those stored by the national archives. they eventually would have been at the donald trump presidential library, whenever that came about. but in the meantime, those are government documents that belong to the government. there's obviously going to be for generations studying the trump presidency all the documents are very key to understanding exactly what was happening in the white house during the trump presidency. >> so this

who knew about the documents being present at mar-a-lago? how many former white house officials or individuals who held or maybe still hold in some capacity of security clearance were aware that these documents were at mar-a-lago? once the documents will retreat a few months ago, by the national archives and the fbi who is aware that there still were documents that are classified, marked classified still at mar-a-lago? the issue with the secret service is a complicated one. because historically, and i have represented many secret service agents and officers. these are some of the most distinguished law enforcement personnel that worked for the federal government. the secret service primarily always in parts upon their membership, never, ever reveal anything about to protect the. but we learned during the clinton lewinsky judge starr [inaudible] counsel investigation, that there is no privilege of protecting the protectee. agents, officers in this case agents, who are on the protective detail for the president, our law enforcement officers. an

the affidavit knows that documents appearing to contain national defence information were found at mar-a-lago. 184 classified documents including top secret and national defence information found at the former presidents home roughly 1000 miles away from the white house roughly a year after he left office if you can call what he did leaving office. it is weird. quote, further there is probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified national defense information currently remain at the premises. and then this, there is also a probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises. which is pretty striking to see in black and white, the doj believed that additional classified documents including highly sensitive ones remained at mar-a-lago. they were right, evidence of obstruction could be found down there at the beach club. we also learned that the national archives went through multiple efforts to retrieve the documents before january of 2022 quote, on or about may 6th 2021 the national archives made a request for the missing records an

there were additional documents, or believe there are additional documents, there are being held at mar-a-lagoted to obtain. so that's why participant precipitated and that's what prompted the activity that we saw on monday at mar-a-lago. that this informant, this witness, was able to tell the fbi that there were additional things there that they needed to go get, and that's why they did this on monday. >> are they reporting in

implications in the presidents possession when the presidents possessions agents showed up at when the agents showed mar-a-lago? up at mar-a-lago? >> >> that's correct. that's correct. i don't i don't believe they believe they were, were. if they and if they thought they thought they were -- >> were. -- you know for >> well do you know for a fact? >> have you spoken to the president about it? >> i have not spoken to the president about wet nuclear materials may materials may or may or may not have been in not have been in there. i do not believe believe that there are any in. there were any in there. >> there >> so, so do we have any better read on whether the sensitive material was in there? that answer, to put charitably, was rather uneven. >> yes, that interview and that answer there, didn't seem like trump's own attorney had a good grasp of wet was taken and what wasn't. they've said that they've been cooperating with authorities on this. they went through the documents and to see and make sure that there is nothing that was top secret or classified their. that's obviously not the case. in terms of the the

reporter: sources say investigators are now scrubbing through security footage they subpoenaed from mar-a-lago. at least one camera capturing the hallway outside trump's storage facility. and according to sources, a trump attorney signed a statement in june after a visit from the fbi, saying all classified documents at mar-a-lago had been turned over. but that was not true. the fbi would seize 11 sets of classified documents during its search, some of it marked top secret and others s.c.i., meaning it came from the most sensitive intelligence sources, often involving secrets from allies, electronic eavesdropping, informants, and other spying. the most sensitive s.c.i. material includes nuclear secrets and information about terrorism operations, material so sensitive that it has to be kept under lock anytime it's moved. >> the fact that it is now outside or has been outside of those really controlled environments, again, is pretty disturbing and shocking to see. >> reporter: as a candidate, donald trump vowed to safeguard classified material. >> in my administration, i'm going to enforce all laws c

but the search warrant just happened to happen at mar-a-lago. if carrie and i are engaged in a drug trafficking conspiracy and i'm the kingpin but she has the suitcase of crystal meth at her house, they can search her house but still charge be with a crime. the mere fact that her property is searched doesn't mean she's the only person. so there could be many, many people here whose private rights and criminal justice rights are at stake. >> there's a lot that we do not know. >> yes. >> and that is incredibly important. even when we get this document because there's still going to be a lot we don't know. one piece of information that we've received in some of the reporting that my colleagues have done is about what is going on in trump world, inside the former president's head. our colleagues report that one source close to trump told cnn that trump has posed the question about a potential indictment to members of his inner circle. another advisor acknowledged while trump has certainly been in legal peril before, this seems different and potential

this idea that donald trump de classified a bunch of documents found at mar-a-lago before he left office. that is actually cited directly in this affidavit as sort of a reason for supporting the reason that they needed to actually go and get these documents at mar-a-lago because it didn't seem like something they were necessarily buying as an excuse. while we got a lot of redacted pages in here, kash patel pops up in this breitbart story from may as one of the reasons for supporting their reasoning for going in to get those documents. >> let me explain who kash patel is. originally he was working for house intelligence when it was run by republicans by devin nunez, then he ended up in the trump nsc, then at the director of national intelligence office and he finally ended up in the pentagon in the closing months of the trump administration. he has been very aggressive on defending the president. he was designated as one of the president's liaisons with national archives post presidency and now is working for truth social which is the president's social media website, which he placed when

what are you learning about this fbi search at mar-a-lago? >> absolutely. these are very wild circumstances because we're talking about a former president and he broke the news. he released a long statement saying the fbi had even searched a safe that he had. we've been told by multiple sources this is related to the presidential records act. this has to do with materials he took when he left the white house potentially classified documents that he took and we know from earlier reporting the national archives said they had recovered 15 boxes of materials that the former president took with him, but what this was focused on is where he was keeping classified or possibly classified materials, whether anything was left behind. it did seem like a bit of a shock even to the trump people because they said they had had lawyers that were engaging with investigators on this issue. >> on that point, randi, you're on the ground in palm beach county, boxes, 15 others reclaimed by the national archives, boxes were still taken by the fbi this time around. what more can yo

or so months, seven, eight months, since they knew that he had this sort of classified material at mar-a-lago i believe we've already seen that, at least publicly, as an attempt at a defense and certainly far right media platforms already saying why did it take this long if it was that serious. and it goes back further. we know from reporting that pat cipollone had conversations with the archives even before trump left office as he was about to transition out about the boxes in the residence of the white house that needed to go back. here's where i think, look, there's been a lot of criticism of d.o.j. and the fbi but have i a slightly take on the criticism. not that they moved too fast to a search warrant but they may not have moved fast enough. i think there was too much deference to a former president. i get it but it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. look, when it comes to trusting a good faith negotiation with trump and his team, i would think that from an established track record that you would not wait this long, that the trust is misplaced. so i think they tried. i t

mar-a-lago home. sources telling cnn at least one of the former president's attorney signed a written statement back in who may have exposure in the ongoing investigation into trump's handling of classified documents. >> now after last week's fbi seizure

he says they went into his safe since he's not at mar-a-lago, somebody had to report that to him. it they do it specifically because they knew he wasn't at mar-a-lago, and if it was this inte intensive and it seems to me that maybe it was broad, i just -- it's just very hard to know. so all we can do is speculate here. >> right, so let me ask you, stephanie, and i want to get elie to weigh in on this as well. as we try to understand, you know, obviously this is hugely significant, which whatever it is related to, whether it be related to january 6th, whether it be related to documents that were wrongly removed from washington or something else, but then in that, stephanie, what stands out is the safe. which the former president himself is the one who told us about it, right? he's saying someone broke into his safe. that would imply they're not just checking for a bunch of becomes. so can you, stephanie, help us understand a little bit more why something like that would have stood out to him or why a safe in particular would have been a place where he kept things. >> so, again, this

mar-a-lago home. sources telling cnn at least one of the former president's attorney signed a written statement back in june claiming there were no more classified materials at mar-a-lago. something we now know to be false. that letter raising new questions about the number of people who may have exposure in the ongoing investigation into trump's handling of classified documents. >> now after last week's fbi seizure of 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were marked as top secret sci, the highest level of classification, top democrats are asking for a congressional briefing as well as damage assessment. since last monday's search, the former president's response to the search has shifted. his latest claim any documents taken from fall under attorney/client privilege and should be returned immediately. let's begin with the latest this morning surrounding the investigation. katelyn polantz has been covering this since the beginning. new details this morning about what exactly was in these documents and also questions about who had access to them down there. >> what might be in these documents

they are lying around all over the place at mar-a-lago. and trump is on notice, for more than a year, that he has these things, and he needs to return them. i can't see how he evades criminal charges, unless there's something in those redactions, that is exonerating. >> jill wine-banks, you have watched everything that donald trump has done in this presidency. but you also watched something that a different president did. there is a watergate enis to this, in that the bubbly-ness of it, the intermixing of documents with i don't know what, the underwear, other things, makes it seem like it's not a secret as it is. but what barbara just sent, there is stuff in here, that had no business being in the president's house. and it's been there for 18 months. we have no idea what those ndi, would that information about human intelligence, what those fisa documents? who has seen them? where they might have been? oh my to photocopy them? we just don't know. it seems dumb, but this might be the most serious thing yet. >> this is very serious. and i say

information which told the paper, if that is true, it would suggest that material residing unlawfully at mar-a-lago may have been classified at the highest classification level, if the fbi and the justice department believed there were top secret materials still at mar-a-lago that would lend itself to greater hair on fire motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible. in its report, the "washington post" also sheds new light on other kinds of sensitive materials that were already recovered from trump's home back in january. when the national archive first realized that important records were missing, quote, a person familiar with the inventory of 15 boxes taken from mar-a-lago in january indicated that signals intelligence material was included in them. the precise nature of the information was unclear. now, as the "washington post" notes in its reporting, signals intelligence can include things like intercepted emails and phone calls of foreign leaders. now, there's a lot of information here. we're going to try and unpack a lot of it. we've got some excellent guests to provide reporti

only gradually came to learn that there was this extent of classified information sitting there at mar-a-lago, and there was a progression here. the national archives turned over 15 boxes of records, there was classified information in it, they referred it to the justice department, which began investigating, we know the top counterintelligence official was down in mar-a-lago meeting with trump officials in june, they handed over some documents and they were assured there were no classified documents left and they learned that may not be true which led them to serve the search warrant. >> we confirmed that they had an informant. so does it even matter if the documents were classified because the three potential crimes that were listed in the search warrant don't require the documents to be classified. >> exactly. that's getting lost here amid this debate about trump's defense he can declassify anything. none of these three statutes require that the information be classified. the doj's position is these are u.s. government documents, property of the government, not donald trump's, it is illega

they could have had it at any time they want it, without playing politics and breaking into mar-a-lago. his phrasing here. let's start here. they should not have been at mar-a-lago in the first place. tll there would be no need to come and ask for them if they'd been where they belonged. >> absolutely, victor, and merrick garland in no uncertain terms laid it out clearly for the public in his statement in which he noted the time line, all the reporting thus far indicates that there was a robust back and forth between team trump and the doj. in fact, there was a subpoena issued in june, and apparently they didn't turn over all of the documents. you know, merrick garland said specifically, which is true, that doj tries to take narrowly tailored means to accomplish its goals and that this was, you know, required at this point in time. clearly they felt, well, they asked for the information, they asked for the documents, they were not turned over. then they received information that there was more there, this was their only option. it's obviously former president trump is going to say that

trump was well aware of these investigators probing the potential classified documents at mar-a-lago, and that's because trump actually stopped in to some of those meetings earlier this year that his attorneys were having at mar-a-lago about this investigation. now in the meantime, we still have not had a comment from the attorney general merrick garland or the fbi director chris wray. wolf? >> very interesting indeed. all right, jessica schneider, thank you very much. let's dig deeper with our legal, political and law enforcement experts preet bharara. how high is the bar to execute a search warrant? a search warrant on a former president of the united states? why didn't they just issue a subpoena? >> well, the legal bar and threshold is the same for everyone in the united states of america, and that's probable cause. i take from your question the implication that maybe the bar should be higher, and i think some people in the real world appreciate that if you're going undertake a law enforcement action like that that is very fraught, it's going to be scrutinized heavily, that involve

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have to demonstrate to the judge there's a good reason to believe evidence of that crime exists at mar-a-lago, and so they really need specific i'd say witness testimony indicating that that person has seen records at mar-a-lago, for example, that would be evidence of the particular crime that the feds are investigating. >> renato, you know over time we've been able to at least sometimes get a little bit of a peek into the former president's emotions from the statements which he sends out and i read about half of the statement from earlier because it then seemed like we were getting out of the matter of relevant items but i'm going to read the rest of it because maybe it'll give our viewers maybe where his head is at right now. we stopped off with the potential targeting at the highest level. now here we go the former president of the united states goes on, hillary clinton was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 e-mails after they were subpoenaed by congress absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable. she even took antique furniture and other items from the white house. and he

posted online to it desire to online about his kill fbi desire to kill agents shortly after search at mar-a-lago. fbi agents we're also learning tonight shortly after the that he was at the capitol search at mar-a-lago. we're also learning riots on january six. tonight that he was at we will cover the big news out the capitol riots on of the justice department as. january 6th. we are going to cover the big well the attorney general news out of the justice department as merrick garland announcing well. the today that he's moving to attorney general merrick unseal the warrant to search garland announcing today that he is trump's home. moving to but we start tonight with a unseal the ward to search trump's home truly gobsmacking getting new report from the washington post. here is it, fdr searches trump's home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources. a quote, classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the fbi items ip agents sought in a search of former president donald trump's residence on monday, according to people familiar with the investigation. experts in class

i'm the person who signed that certification saying that there are no more classified documents at mar-a-lago. i make that affirmative representation as a member of the bar. would try to save myself by saying but my client told me that. i relied reasonably on what donald trump told me. so i don't have any type of culpability or exposure here. >> that would be a defense. maybe not a plausible one, but that's the only defense that they might have. they also would have to, if they're the same lawyers that are on this case, would have to withdraw from the case. >> there you go. >> which in and of itself would be a tell. so they couldn't say why they're withdrawing, but clearly there would be a conflict of interest here, and they should in fact withdraw from the case. >> so hugo, trump can't shut up. he is constantly posting on trump social. it's really absurd, frankly, the number of times he's posting on trump social. but since last night's filing, he has reacted by saying, quote, i declassified. it sounds like an admission to me. what's your reaction to the continuing statements and frankly admi

as you know it went on for hours here at mar-a-lago throughout the day, john. plans for the search at mar-a-lago would have been reviewed by the top levels of the justice department and the fbi. that is according to this source familiar with the investigation telling our colleagues, evan perez and gabby orr, john. >> a lot of new details in there. they took boxes out. we do know that the former president was not at mar-a-lago during this search today. he was up here in the northeast. but can you remind us how he uses this property? >> reporter: sure. he changed his residency back in 2019 from new york to florida. so, this is home for him. he bought mar-a-lago back in 1985. it was once owned by the cereal company merriwether post. he used it as a private residence for quite some time before turning it into the mar-a-lago club. just to give you an idea of what's there, 126 room, 16,000 square feet, 17 acres. he's hosted international world leaders. the prime minister of japan had visited here, shinzo abe, also the president of china. there are many politicians who

former president's attorneys, talking about, well, these classified documents were unknowingly at mar-a-lagod what you have here is this evolution where, at some point, the department of justice is at mar-a-lago, is talking to the attorneys, and saying, we are concerned that there's classified information here that's not secured. regardless of any mistakes, misunderstanding, regardless of whether it's credible or not, there is a line that was drawn in june, and then what we have is 14 lines of redactions. something changed. there was some material additional evidence, some action, i think, that's the basis for obstruction, that changed, and that's really the driving factor, in my opinion, on why we're even seeing a criminal search warrant used in the investigation. >> so, say more. i mean, obstruction is the word that jumped out at us, but you're right, it comes after a big redacted section. is that in other investigations sometimes because of concerns that evidence is being destroyed, that evidence is in danger? is it just the very sensitive nature of what these documents are? >> well, i th

mar-a-lago today? >> reporter: over my shoulder things are quiet. the secret service has a full-time presence at mar-a-lago. they were here yesterday and got a phone call from the fbi. the secret service was not involved in executing the search warrant and a representative, a lawyer why they said they're cooperating with the department of justice and the fbi. there is a fair amount of video surveillance at mar-a-lago and in all likelihood the fbi that was here would have also videotaped and taken some pictures of their work to eventual lu show what happened and potentially to defend themselves. as you know the president has used the term raid, that he was raided at mar-a-lago. that to some is a loaded word. some say it's a search of the premise and a search warrant that identified things they were looking for. that right now remains kind of out of view. we don't know what it says and possible we may not see it for sometime if they're classified documents because if it's detailed in the search warrant they would then automatically become public. >> what does it take to carry out this search? >> s

a little more than a month ago, you had ableants at mar-a-lago, they were trying to get documents backe point after months and months of trying to negotiate this, that the fbi decided we are at an impasse, we need a search warrant? >> that's really the yquestion. we don't know so much about this, but we do know what this investigation was. ni initially, it was the national archives being concerned about the documents the trump people had after the presidency at mar-a-lago. what's interesting is we have talked before about 15 boxes at mar-a-lago. those boxes as far as we know, those were recovered previously by the national archives and subpoenaed by the justice department as part of this same criminal probe, if is the one that eric trump is referring to there. so those documents now, they already had in their possession, and at some point, they realized in that june meeting that there was more there. it appears they were shown by the trump lawyers on site, there are things here. and the justice department came back and said keep those secure. we just don't know what happened after that

www.vitac.com >>> the justice department releasing the document that paved the way for the investigation at mar-a-lago. plus, more security concerns at mar-a-lago. a russian speaking woman who reportedly posed as a banking heiress got into the resort and next to president trump. the reporter who broke the story is our guest. and democrats see a winning message going after republicans on abortion. so far, it seems to be working. let go out front. "outfront," obstruction. the affidavit the justice department used to obtain a search warrant for mar-a-lago. the affidavit, about 38 pages long. about half of it is redacted. blacked out. it is still shedding light on the criminal investigation including the probable cause that warranted the search. according to the doj, of the 15 boxes that trump handed over in january, 14 contained documents with classification markings. that included 67 which were marked confidential noorks marked secret, and 25 marked top secret. according to the fbi, of most significant concern was that highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records and otherwis

mar-a-lago is not exactly a scif, quite the opposite. mar-a-lago is penetrated and probed and all kind of stuff has happened at mar-a-lago if it's the caseere's documentation of this kind. let's put aside the question of trump's motive for the moment which is important. foreign adversaries of the united states were to learn there were top secret or higher classifications and documents on site at mar-a-lago, basically behind a door with the padlock on it from truevalue hardware. what would they do? what would be the move at that point to try to penetrate the minimal security there is to get a hold of these documents? >>. >> as you referenced, mar-a-lago is more like a sieve than a scif. there were counterintelligence investigations related to mar-a-lago, chinese nationals gaining access, fbi miami very publicly busy catching russians and chinese trying to get around and into that property. so, look, i cringe when i think of being assigned this damage assessment. some poor souls in the government are going to have to figure this out. what does damage assessment do? it is a comprehensive look backwards at where these documents were, what th

they met with him at mar-a-lago, and sources tell us that during the course of that meeting, some of donald trump's aides actually showed these agents a spot in a basement at mar-a-lago where these records were being kept. now, shortly after that meeting occurred, aides to the former president received a letter asking them to keep that basement more secure, and they added a padlock, and that is really what precipitated this search yesterday at the former president's property. we know that there were classified markings on some of the documents that agents saw during the june meeting, and we suspect that during the course of the search yesterday at trump's residence in palm beach, florida, more documents were carried away. in fact, we know that as leyla said, that was confirmed by an attorney for the former president. >> we're not hearing anything from the justice department about this search warrant. what are we hearing from the former president? >> reporter: well, the former president has leaned into his possible 2024 campaign in the midst of this. i think recognizing that there has

person who sworn to the affidavit mar-a-lago does not have a secure location as such it appears that the time classified document were removed from the secured facilities at or around january 20, 2021. they have not been handled in an appropriate manner or stored in an appropriate location. we asked if at mar-a-lago the document stored to be secure and all the boxes removed from the white house to mar-a-lago along with any items to be observed in that room until further notice. martha, the interesting thing about this is we have heard a back and forth for months that the department of justice and federal prosecutors and the fbi knew that these documents were in a room at mar-a-lago. the actual search did not happen or raid or whatever you want to call it until august. negotiators from the department of justice were down at mar-a-lago meeting with president trump's team, former president trump's team in june. the former president actually popped into that meeting, and they were aware that some of these documents were in this room in a storage room in the basement of mar-a-lago. that is clearly what this talks about right here, martha. >> thank you, the dep

mar-a-lago, people stand up. they are constantly standing up applauding him. he needs that. >> reporter: regarding the reporting of sensitive documents remaining at mar-a-lago, cnned that one of trufmp's attorneys earlier in summer say no classified documents remain at mar-a-lago and that donald trump used his prerogative to declassify the documents before leaving office but they have offered for evidence of any formal declassification process taking place. brian todd, cnn, washington. >>> ahead, a defining moment for the biden presidency, infl"infln reduction act" about to be signed in to law. >>> and voters in wyoming about to decide the fate of liz cheney. it's an invigorating rush... ...zapping millions of germs inin seconds. for that one-of-a-kind whoa... .....which leaves you feeling... ahhhhhhh listerine. feel the whoa! ♪ meta portal go. look professional. ♪ even if you don't feel it. meta portal. the smart video calling device... - right on time! - of course. that makes work from home work for you. so, shall we get started? with best western rewards you get rewarded when you stay on the road and on the go. find your rewards so you can reconnect, disconne

mar-a-lago is not a secure facility for classified documents. and that's what caused archives. when they got those documents and realized there was more at mar-a-lago, that's what caused archives to get doj and the fbi involved. that's why this is a criminal matter. >> and we get a scope of the timeline of how long this had been going on, right, because you have the former president's legal team saying basically you should have just asked us. we were cooperating. now we see how many attempts were actually made to do just that. >> this notion that doj or archives acted suddenly or irrationally in going in and executing the search warrant two and a half weeks ago is completely false. it's completely undermined by the actual facts. this tells us archives started asking for these documents from mar-a-lago in may of 2021 and didn't actually get them until seven months later. that is remarkable patience. if anything, i think you might question archives and doj, why did you wait so long. >> why didn't you go in sooner. harry, let me turn to you on this issue of probable cause. because we also learned that there was evidence of obstruction that

the reporting source tells fox news, the rate at mar-a-lago happened early this morning. agents even brought a safe cracker and opened a relatively new safe at mar-a-lago. coworkers say the safe was new and "nothing in it." fbi agents went through every single office, safe, and grab documents without going through them on the mar-a-lago property, instead taking the documents and boxes to go through later. report sources familiar with monday's raid say it's related to mr. trump taking potentially classified information from the white house when he left on january 20th 2021. fox is told that at this point, monday's raid is related to that information, not the january 6 investigation. the department of justice has declined to comment. both "the new york times" and associated press also report the search that "the new york times" reporting president trump previously delayed returning 15 boxes of materials, but the national archives demanded they be given back. mr. trump reportedly complied only there became a threat of action taken to retrieve them. former president trump writ

so that's not that long ago, where the doj and fbi agents are at mar-a-lago. they see this room full of documents. they later tell the folks at mar-a-lago to better secure that room. it doesn't make sense that from that year-long negotiation you would all of a sudden have a search warrant that was a complete surprise to the folks at mar-a-lago. so that's what i'm trying to kind of really get my head around here. >> so does it seem to you that they know what they were looking for? that it's a needle in the haystack, but they know what the needle is? they asked for the documents and they got some percentage but they say what we're looking for isn't there. they're very specific, they know what they need, and it may be related to some other investigation, or do you think they don't know what they want, but they know they didn't get everything? >> it's hard to think they didn't know what was still at mar-a-lago after that meeting in june. in fact, it's strange to believe that they saw allegedly classified documents among those boxes in the room in the basement and d

>> that's right, john, it has been a week and we learned more about what led up to this search at mar-a-lago over the weekend. back in june a lawyer for former president donald trump attested in writing that no more classified documents were at mar-a-lago. that's according to the "new york times." also around that time trump's team in florida received a visit from agents looking for boxes as well as a subpoena to return them to the federal government, but despite all of that the fbi still recovered 11 sets marked as classified documents when they did the search last monday. that included documents, john, that were marked at every level of classification in the system, including the most sensitive types of documents that are not to be represent anywhere but in special secured rooms called skiffs. those seized boxes are evidence in an ongoing criminal appropriate plus the justice department will look at all of the interactions that investigators had with trump's team over the past several month and that's going to be all factoring in as they decide whether anyone should be charged with a crime

mar-a-lago. we spoke to multiple people who said that former president trump, while at mar-a-lago, would wave around a sheet of paper, or point to or hold an object to show them to say something to the effect of, these are my momentos from my time in the white house. obviously it's not clear if he was supposed to legally have any of those in his possession. and i have no idea if anything is fanciful as the nuclear launch codes -- paper. but he has over the last year or get a half being showing some of these things off that again, you can argue stole from the federal government to gust at mar-a-lago. does this dissonance cognitive, of this yes there is a paranoia is the feds out to get me, are they investigating me? and does this apply to me? but of course he's thinks he's above every thing. >> they obviously are investigating him. but the spawning of these regulations don't apply to me. in other words, trump of course, as always thinks he's above any law he can think of. >> i mean meridith you have elected republican leaders out there carrying trump's water. you have members of trump's inner and out

but we've been talking about security at mar-a-lago. t himself said had been searched as part of this search. what was your impression of security at mar-a-lago? and were you aware that the basement was being used as storage for a lot of documents or not? >> you know, you mentioned the safe. in the break i was actually reading the search warrant and it doesn't specify the safe, so i'm not sure where that's coming from. i wasn't aware that there was a safe at mar-a-lago. i was aware a little bit about the security because the president was there a good bit. i was also aware that the fbi actually asked him in june to upgrade the security. the fbi was there, i think you mentioned earlier, someone did on your show that the president sent documents in june. that's not accurate. the fbi actually went to the property and took documents in june and then wrote back to the president and said please increase the security by putting a lock on this door and so forth. so the fbi was aware of the security before august and i'm wondering now why they di

meaning at mar-a-lago, i think the real question and needs to be looked at here is why were they being kept at mar-a-lago? there is no doubt in my mind that donald had to have known, the documents were there. no matter what's may or may not be involved, nothing goes on in mar-a-lago, nothing goes on in trump world without donald trump specific knowledge. the real question should be? why more of these documents being kept there? was there a nefarious purpose? i don't know, why altered anybody keep you know, classified documents in an office side location -- >> you know this got president anyone, help us get some insight into what the possible why could be. his allies would have you believe that this is all innocent. he's the classify the documents before they went to mar-a-lago. and whatever, no one's been able to explain. are they souvenirs? are they mom embassy wanted to keep, nobody has given us the why. >> okay so rest a sure that these are not, these are not the love letters from king jong-un and vladimir putin or anybody else in the donald is in love with him. that is not with the

basically they said they believe there's probable cause there was classified materials still at mar-a-lago, probable cause that presidential records could be at mar-a-lago. and those presidential records, by the way, are owned by the u.s. government. they're not owned by donald trump, and they also said the fbi affidavit that they believed there was probable cause of evidence of obstruction at mar-a-lago. fred, we looked through the whole affidavit. most of the information on obstruction was heavily redacted, so we don't have that many details on the obstruction part of this case, but the other parts that they thought there were more classified documents, the judge found that to be reliable. he approved the search. they did the search, and fred, they found more classified documents, so their suspicions were correct. >> marshall cohen, thank you for that break down. let's turn to michael zeldin and former council for the national security agency or nsa. good to see both of you, gentlemen. a lot of key details were redacted from this affidavit, but that first sentence saying the government i

at mar-a-lago. we are told that was about 8:00 this morning. and that was a search that lasted for several hours. and trump said in the statement that they, quote, even broke into my safe. i am told that is a safe that was in the presidents office at mar-a-lago. it is obviously a large resort, but there is a section that was reserved just for the former president and his family. he has officers there. he has this president. there it is's primary residence since leaving the white house. and so, when it comes to what exactly they are looking for here, these investigators and the fbi agents. they're actually executing the search warrant. we were told it is tied to that investigation and into how that information was handled. it will take about 50 boxes with him when he left the white house. to mar-a-lago. there were concerns about what kind of information was in there. but potentially classified information was in there. clearly, those are still big questions that investigators have even today as they carried out this. we should note, trump, is of

a senior government official telling nbc news agents spent a majority of monday at donald trump's mar-a-lago estate in palm beach, florida, and he was not home at the time. the former president was in new york at that time and was first to announce that search and described it as a, quote, raid, adding in his lengthy statement, quote, they even broke into my safe. another source telling nbc news that search was tied to classified information that trump allegedly took with him from the white house. trump's own lawyer confirming the fbi, quote, seized paper from mar-a-lago. tonight about a dozen house republicans are planning on having dinner with trump in bedminster, new jersey, the site of one of his golf clubs. this hour, the significance of that meeting, why some sitting republican lawmakers are calling for the fbi to be defended and what this says about trump's on going legal jeopardy. >>> we'll begin with nbc kerry sanders in florida for us today, justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian in washington. kerry, i'll start with you outside mar-a-lago. tell us what you're seeing a

at university of phoenix, you could earn your master's degree in less than a year for under $11k. learn more at phoenix.edu breaking news tonight a search warrant at the former president 's mar-a-lagoort in florida. we touched on this earlier, how delicate it must have been for the fbi and justice department to plan, organize a surge of a former presidents home. which is protected by other federal offices. namely the secret service, and do it all in as much secrecy as possible to protect all concerned, while safeguarding the investigation as well. more perspective, joined by cnn law enforcement allies and former secret service agent, jonathan -- jonathan, i was talking to aid in earlier, there, was a small contingency of secret service and still at mar-a-lago, even when the president isn't there. but still, this is so unprecedented. how do you imagine it all went down? >> well good evening, let me make sure i make this point to everyone. we keep referring to this to the mar-a-lago resort. this is actually the primary residence of the former president of the united states. just like chappaqua is for the clintons, just like the crawford ranches for former president bush. this is the