sa sarah, you've been to mar-a-lago many times. icle tonight that shows these locations that they write about. you show where they are. this is -- so this is where they searched. i'm going to keep this document up. tell me what we're seeing here. >> so what we understand is of course that the agents had access to the entire 17-acre estate. but one of the important things to understand about mar-a-lago is it's not just one large mansion, as it's described there, it's more like a series of small units that are connected by staircases and hallways, sometimes outdoor pathways. and really the primary locations of storage and also that 45 office as well as the residence, the private suite where former president trump lives when he's there at mar-a-lago, those are in the main building and the donald j. trump ballroom, so the grand ballroom just to the south of the main building. and that's -- that's where the primary location of this search occurred. the residence, that suite, which is on the first floor, the ground floor of the main build

the doj unconvinced by trump's lawyers, subpoenaed mar-a-lago surveillance tapes in late june. not to tape that eric trump is talking about. this was a surveillance tape from earlier, one that reportedly shows people moving boxes out of mar-a-lago and the storage room around the same time that the doj was asking if there were any more important documents down there at mar-a-lago. the tapes also reportedly show boxes being stuffed into a differing containers. again, around june 3rd. when trump's lawyers were saying essentially, you have everything already. of course today, we know that is not true at all. it matters. the times reports quote, that june 3rd statement, the one from the lawyers that is, along with visuals from the surveillance camera footage of the property and witness interviews, were said to be part of the concerns among investigators about obstruction. joining us now is a former united states attorney. thanks for so much for joining us. >> glad to be with you, alex. >> so let's talk about these two elements as it pertains to obstruction. the first is the surveilla

i will note he says it was a large number of fbi agents that were at mar-a-lago today. he did pick the current fbi director chris wray. it's a decision he's said many times he regrets. but it is an fbi director that was hand picked by trump and put into that position. >> all right, gloria, i want to ask you about something else that you said -- stood out to you about the former president's statement. that was that they spent a significant amount of time there today. what more from what he's saying and what you've described as a long statement putting out, trying to get ahead of this, what more stands out to you? >> look, i think that as elie was saying, you know, they don't have to say we're specifically looking for this document that was potentially noth handed ove to the archives. they can be as broad as they want, and i think that's what probably happened today, and got the former president so incensed to release this large statement. i mean, if this is about the handling of those 15 boxes of documents that went to mar-a-lago, the justice department started investigat

the trove of top secret and heavily classified documents that they found, during that search at mar-a-lago. >> a week of questions about why the fbi combed former president trump's mar-a-lago residents. punctuated with the newly unsealed search and seizure risk warrant. the court documents are guilty of elsa gaiters were searching for all physical documents and records, illegally possessing violation of three laws. including a part of the espionage act, the justice department describes as a key national defence and national security provision. federal agents removed 11 sets of classified documents. some, mark topsecret. sensitive compartmented event information. indicating a material that should only be viewed in a secure facility. and by those on a need to know basis within the government. the fbi, described a book at the a items were covered with only a box member. but also listed, in four regarding the president of france. and executive grand clemency for roger stone, two binders of photos, and a handwritten note. the unprecedented search, authorized by the attorney general. >> i person

this mar-a-lago raid a big part of it, dominating the conversation after that raid at mar-a-lago, whichom biden. question for you, james. can biden and democrats use this to their advantage? >> well, first of all, trump is a scared, fat, old man. you know, he could tell us what's in that search warrant. there's nothing to prevent that. he could have testified before the new york attorney general. he did not do that. president biden doesn't have any say-so of when the justice department moves. but this is just the beginning. i mean i see all this talk about trump being a lock for the nomination in 2024. the only thing that might be a lock on him is a jail door. i mean, this is a very, very serious thing that the justice department has undertaken. like i say, if he thinks it's unjust, well, why don't he just make that search warrant public, of which he totally can do. >> he absolutely could. you talk about this being very serious. of course it is, but the justice department is sort of looming for biden too. there could be some headaches too because of their investigation into his son, hun

for the fbi to get a warrant and go search mar-a-lago, what needs to happen? >> the world needs to move. i mean, i can't overemphasize to you, john, how big of a deal this would have been within the department of justice and the fbi. this is not, you know, a couple of agents showing up at some judge's door in the middle of the night to get an emergency warrant. this is something that would have been planned out and re-evaluated and legally examined from every possible angle by the entirety of the leadership structure of both organizations. so let's remember that to get a search warrant in any case, whether it's you or i or the former president, you have to go before a federal judge and convince that judge that there's probable cause to believe both that a federal crime has been committed and that evidence of that crime is contained within the space you have described in your warrant request. so we have in this situation a federal judge made that determination, giving the agents authority to enter that premises and search every part of the premises that might co

, he doesn't spend summers in mar-a-lago. mar-a-lago normally shuts down for summer and he's normally this time of year in bedminster nbc news has confirmed he's not there. but it is important to remember it was february of this year the national archives and records administration asked the justice department to examine whether former president trump's handling of white house records violated federal law that was a story first reported by "the washington post" and then confirmed by nbc news so there's another area. >> that's right. and i would just say that it's certainly -- it is certainly possible that this is related to the handling of white house records, classified materials. usually a criminal prosecution wouldn't begin on that basis ironically, of course, the former president was calling on his opponent to be investigated for that crime or charged for that crime i will say that, you know, this could be a number of different matters. we can't be sure exactly what the -- what the potential offense is we'll know more once

also said agents sought only to go through trump's office and storage areas and not any rooms at mar-a-lago for guests. "the washington post" also reported the fbi was searching for classified documents relating to nuclear weapons. cnn's reporting shows that the search of trump's home was a culmination of months of escalating tension between the former president and the justice department which has been seeking sources to retrieve records and papers that should have never left washington. cnn's evan perez and katelyn polantz are here. the details of this "wall street journal" report, what are you learning? >> right, victor, so we are looking through the "wall street journal" reporting here that where they are saying they're reviewing documents that are included in this court filing or in this search warrant, and that search warrant would lay out what was seized out of mar-a-lago. it would have the receipts of what was taken. that receipt would have been given to the president's legal team, and what the journal says is that it is 11 boxes or sets or classified documents including the highest

and we pick up the breaking news on the mar-a-lago search affidavit next. mar-a-lago searh affidavit next i say, “so are they.” ♪♪ aleve - who do you take it for? laundry truths: the bargain jug. ♪♪ that's a huge jug of detergent. yeah, isn't it a bargain? you know that bargain detergent is 85% water, right? really? it's this much water! so, i'm just paying for watery soap? that's why i use tide pods. they're super concentrated, so... i'm paying for clean, not water! bingo. don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide pods. new astepro allergy. now available without a prescription. pay for clean. astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free spray. while other allergy sprays take hours astepro starts working in 30 minutes. so you can... astepro and go. >>> good to be with you. i'm katy tur. it's a big day here in the united states. the department of justice compelled by a federal court made the incredibly unusual move of releasing an affidavit before charges are filed or declined in an investigation. not only that but the affidavit is for pro

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

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

at mar-a-lago. it was obviously a large resort but there is a section that was reserved just for the president and his family. he has office, there gases residents there it is's primary residence since leaving the white house. when it comes to what exactly they're the investigators and if agents were actually educate -- it we were told it was tied to that investigation how it was handled. we're told it was taken with him when he left the white house to mar-a-lago. there are concerns as to what kind of information was their kind classified information was there. there is still big questions there as they carried out that. and trump is of course criticizing it and saying that kind of assault can only take place broken third with countries. america has become of those countries crept in a way saying that even, quote, broken in my safe. laura, you'll stop some reporting that saying this is the first time trump has not seen these investigators reading the. back in early june mar-a-lago. >> so this is wher

he will make remarks about the search warrant execution at mar-a-lago on monday. in the interim, there was a request early this year for documents, they took 15 boxes of documents from mar-a-lago. there was the subpoena ahead of the june meeting. and then the search warrant. would an additional subpoena have been futile in this effort considering i guess they thought they had the documents relevant before they got that call from the informant. >> yeah, i think it's safe to reason that merrick garland came to that conclusion. we tried a subpoena once, you gave us some documents, but we then learned that you had not given us all of them. what's another subpoena going do in that situation? i think that could well have been doj's reasoning. to the point caitlyn was just making, prosecutors and merrick garland in this situation are in a really difficult scenario when it comes to this type of situation because your hands are largely tied as to what you can say to the press. your instinct as a lawyer, a prosecutor, is i want to get behind that microphone, i want to set ev

kerry, i'll start with you outside mar-a-lago. tell us what you're seeing and what happened there yesterday? >> i'm just across the water from mar-a-lago. it's very quiet today. yesterday was a very different situation. the secret service was notified by the fbi they would be coming by to serve a search warrant. the former president, donald trump, was not here at mar-a-lago when they came in. they did spend a tremendous amount of the day executing this search warrant. there was a lawyer who represents donald trump who was here. she says there was a cooperative experience with the fbi, that they were able to work with the fbi and the department of justice as they were executing the search warrant. it's important to note that while we have not really seen anything, and you just pointed out it was the former president who let the world know the fbi had been at plg executing the search warrant. there is a tremendous amount of video security at the facility there across the way, the estate, as well as the fbi would likely be shooting vi

in january, federal officials retrieved 15 boxes of documents from mar-a-lago. there were more interviews that led them to obtain this grand jury subpoena in june. they collected additional documents, and then they got a call from an informant saying, there's more here. does this appear to you to be a president who was actively trying to hide some of these records from federal authorities? >> surely. and that's what the june meeting, which postdates the subpoena, was about. and as asha says now, it looks much, much more like a retrieval operation. the documents we're talking about, victor, top secret or classified, these are things that could reveal sources and methods, literally endanger the lives of u.s. folks, and we know that trump loves to sort of brandish them and boast to strangers passing by, so it looks more and more, now that we know about the subpoena, that they tried everything they could, and then they got the confidential information that stuff was still there. that was in the affidavit, as was everything else, by the way, which people are wondering

they found documents marked that in mar-a-lago. keep that in mind when we hear of the new letter. or donald trump, christina bobb was at mar-a-lago and received this document because she signed it 6:19 p.m. she was there for the search, on the day of the search, and they gave her this receipt. what's not seen? >> the main thing not seen in the boxes is the affidavit where the doj lays out the narrative of probable cause approved by a federal magistrate. donald trump does not have that, only the prosecutors and the court has it under seal. >> you talk about the laws that doj said they had probable cause to think might have been broken. >> yeah, a couple of really important qualifications before we get into this. this is probable cause, a lower standard than beyond a reasonable doubt which you would need to charge and convict somebody. these crimes are not alleged as to any particular person. the doj has not alleged donald j trump committed these crimes, just that these crimes were committed. the here are the statutes. section 793, the thing drawn so much attention is it is part of t

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

and that could be, basically, everything he took from mar-a-lago -- not from mar-a-lago, to mar-a-lagoto the white house. and that could include january 6th material, it may not. it just depends on what's there. obviously, they have some basis to conclude there's something interesting there. and they took out apparently boxes and boxes of materials suggesting that maybe he did not return all of the materials. or maybe there's something in there that indicates some nefarious intent -- he had some nefarious intent in bringing the documents to mar-a-lago. we just don't know at this point. >> if there were a classified document of some kind that the farmer president had improperly kept, manipulated, destroyed, whatever, how and why would it be in the national interest for the fbi to get its hands on that? >> well, i mean, if there are classified documents there, or evidence of classified documents that were mishandled, mistreated or destroyed, you know, that's a very serious thing. people have gone to jail for that. and people have gotten convicted of that. and if he did it with a large nu

they've all come here to is the former president mar-a-lago. i kaye racing to the scene for us, thank you very much. in other news now a federal grand jury has indicted a russian national in accuses him of conspiring to use u.s. citizens as illegal agents of the russian government. the governor dresses claims after the seven years who work under the -- as you try to influence political peace in florida, georgia, court. the doj warns that the russian pageants threat continues with the goal of the stabilizing undermine interests and u.s. democracy. for now on cnn's donie o'sullivan. we talked with the accuse russian and an unindicted coconspirator. a >> my message is so easy. i am not evil. >> not doctor evil, but this man alexander enough has been charged and sanctioned by the u.s. government for working with the fsb russian intelligence to infiltrate the american political movements. >> he handles russian government coconspirators engaged in a malign influence campaign to sow discord, spread propaganda, and interfere in elections in the united s

what did the warrant reveal about why the fbi searched mar-a-lago? but questions remained unanswered? >> we'll start with what we do know and get to it we don't know. we know the fbi collected 27 boxes of information from mar-a-lago on monday. 11 sets of classified information from the mar-a-lago property. i have this search warrant and the receipt right here. it says the fbi took possession of the executive grant of clemency for roger stone, info regarding the president of france, three boxes of -- and at least five boxes that contained top secret documents. it doesn't get much more secret then top secret. the world that has access to top secret information is very small. the washington post working with nbc to confirm -- documents of course would be in the top secret range. republicans and democrats on both sides of the aisle are really concerned about this fbi search. but of course were very different reasons. here's what some had to say. >> it's definitely concerning, but why not just subpoena. this is a long history now where one of our most valu

the mar-a-lago search warrant is now public. olations ofe espionage act and over major crimes can they left with a trove of secret documents including some classified at the very highest level. we're poring over all the information just released by a federal judge. >> welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room.

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

>>. >> as you referenced, mar-a-lago is more like a sieve than a scif. re 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 they represent and who may have had access to them. when you're talking about a place like mar-a-lago, even if you rule out and i'm not sure you can, but rule out the membership side with the hotel or resort side and it is a massive building with lots and lots of staff. it's a building that we have to assume has been targeted by foreign services while trump was president. he spent many, many weekends there so it would be a logical target and sending human sources in, and also technical collection. there's no reason to believe that that's stoppe

not just mar-a-lago generally but specifically within mar-a-lago.t's a sprawling estate, as i understand it. and they specified a former safe of the president. his personal quarters, his private residence. as part of that evidence you're presenting to a judge to show probable cause you're going to talk about the propensity --s not the propensity, but the conduct of the person who owns the premises seeking to be searched including destroying documents. by the way, zwrjust to reiterat something that kaitlan was saying there's no way in this universe this wasn't signed off by the attorney general himself. i was in that office, even though there may not be a formal requirement to get the signoff on highest levels of the justice department to implement a search of donald trump, you want to get the signoff of the top official at the justice department, and, by the way, they know, as kaitlan also points out that this action is going to get tremendous juscrutiny, not justy the press but from members for years and they have to make sure that every i is dotte

it says, as i previously indicated to you" and this is the person who sworn to the affidavit mar-a-lago appears that the time classified document were removed from the secured facilities at the white house and moved to mar-a-lago on 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

mar-a-lago would not be the national archives. i have never been to mar-a-lago. i don't know what kind of containment units have. i president the president records act tell you they prefer it be where they know. that time lline that you laid o, john, if you believed at a point in time there was something as serious as nuclear documents, would there be any reason that you would have either advised or thought it prudent to delay in executing a search warrant? there is that little bit of a gap when there was, hey, i want you to better secure whatever it is you had. do you think something made him say an urgent notion, they found out something very quickly? >> i think either top secret or nuclear material. either one of those would justify going. as you know, a top secret classification is some of the most sensitive data we have in our national security archives. so that has an expectation that it can cause serious national problems to, damage to the national security. so that would have -- top secret alone would have been an impetus to go with a search warrant. nucl

my understanding mar-a-lago kept operating like a regular old club. >> it is. lace where people go to spend money, play tennis, go swimming. they do not feel want to feel they're visiting or living in an a high security enclave. they want to feel like they're going to a club, and the president knew that. and he's a masterful marketer. camp david, that idea having mar-a-lago serve as the meeting point with foreign leaders was truly masterful marketing. the whole world learned about mar-a-lago thanks to trump's meetings with xi jinping and foreign leaders. >> was there ever a time mar-a-lago actually increased its security protocols other than having secret service there to make it top secret or pretty much leave it where it was? >> there was a famous incident was a very confused possibly deceptive chinese tourist crashed mar-a-lago and was arrested. and up to that point the secret service had never done counter espionage training with any of the staff members and this was in 2019. so it's not until 2019 these staff members temporary workers often from abroad that

it was a tip from an informant that triggered the search of mar-a-lago, an informant whose identity remains unknown this morning. cnn has already reported that investigators from the fbi and doj met with trump lawyers at mar-a-lago in june. they were seeking information about classified material that had been taken to florida after trump left the white house. now, according to the "wall street journal," after that meeting someone tipped off investigators, there were more classified documents beyond what trump turned over to the national archives earlier this year. let's bring in former federal prosecutor michael zeldin. what is your reaction to the reports of an informant here that there was a meeting at mar-a-lago in june, after that meeting someone informed law enforcement that there were more documents that were unsecured? is this a possibility that this informant is from trump's orbit? >> well, it would make sense that somebody within the trump world, within the mar-a-lago complex, had knowledge of the existence of additional boxes, 12 as we learned, and they decided that it was importa

on this story today, that among the items that fbi agents were searching for when they went to mar-a-lago in palm beach, florida, on monday, was classified documents relating to nuclear weapons. that's a big deal. as everybody listening knows. we don't know, for example, whether those were related to, the documents were related to nuclear weapons belonging to the united states, or nuclear weapons belonging to another nation, perhaps further reporting can shed light on that. nor do we know frankly if those documents were actually recovered by the fbi in their search, but we know that one of the reasons they sought the search warrant and went down to mar-a-lago with authorization from a judge to search through the former president's space and private quarters for document is they were looking for the classified documents that had to do with nuclear weapons. >> i want to be clear here. the information, the reporting you have been able to get is that they were seeking some of this information, not necessarily that they got the information. that's right. we can confirm according to our sources

unprecedented search of former president donald trump's south florida residence and private club, mar-a-lago, on monday. nbc news, among other news organizations, obtained a copy of the search warrant a whool ago along with the inventory of the items seized by the fbi from mar-a-lago granting the government search warrant, judge rinehart affirmed that the government had established probable cause of potential violation of three federal statutes. number one relates to the unlawful removal of government material. number two relates to the law prohibiting the destruction or concealment of documents to obstruct an investigation. number three, potentially the most explosive, the espionage act. the inventory of what the fbi seized includes around 20 boxes of items including four sets of top-secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents. the list does not provide any more details about the substance of those documents or what might be in them. in addition, there was binders of photos, signatures of the former president, executive grant of clemency for ro

and we know, not surprisingly, that 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

there would be evidence of this crime in this location mar-a-lago. we don't have the affidavit to lay out the facts to base that finding but you can imagine probably a lot of that information came from the interactions with the trump team to include of course the meeting in june when represent i haves from doj and the fbi went down to mar-a-lago, allegedly went into the storage room in the basement and may have taken some documents with them on that day. so the facts that they used to make the arguments for probable cause were very strong. a lot of them likely based on the observations. >> at issue are documents that the highest classification levels. the former president said he declassified the documents before leaving the white house. why would a president want documents to be declassified? >> it is very hard to understand although with donald trump if you recall in the russia investigation there was a point at which donald trump tweeted that he wanted all documents related to this investigation declassified. that did not occur. a judge got involve

all these boxes, all your personal items get brought down to mar-a-lago. question about whether there might be classified information that have been written about long time ago. let's walk through the process. so mar-a-lago, the people that work for your dad were working with the national archives to go through the material, to make sure if there was anything mistakenly taken that it was going to be returned, and you were working collaboratively -- collaboratively on that, correct? >> so when the president was out of the white house you effectively have six hours to move out of the white house. effectively inauguration time where one president gets moved out and one president gets moved in, right? that's how the whole system works as you know better than anybody. my father always kept clippings, you know, press clippings, newspaper articles, pictures, notes from us. when my mom passed away a couple weeks ago he still had all the notes over the years -- all the notes she had ever written him. my father saves clippings and things like that. so he had boxes.

outfront tonight new details on the fbi's search of mar-a-lago. ing new documents related to that search. i'm just show you, because here they are. ju

a horrible thing that took place yesterday at mar-a-lago. we are no better than a banana republic. it is a continuation of russia, russia, russia. he went on the say it is all in my opinion a coordinated attack with the left democrat and state and local d.a.'s and ags. 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 caus

an informant at mar-a-lago? well, cnn has not confirmed this part of the story, but we've already reported that investigators believe that trump and his aides had not returned all of the documents, and they also believe that trump's representatives were not being entirely honest with them. trump, meanwhile, seems to be hiding behind the fifth amendment, which, of course, is his right to do. and he did so today during today's session with the new york attorney general's office, who is investigating of course the trump organization. i'm going to give you my take on that a little bit later in the show. but for now, let's remember that trump once said that only criminals took the fifth. >> you see the mob takes the fifth. if you're innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment? >> hmm. what a difference a few years makes. today trump saying in a statement instead, quote, when your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated witch hunt suppo

izzy posing a request by donald trump to appoint a special master to review documents taken from mar-a-lagoy government documents were likely concealed and removed from a storage room at mar-a-lago to obstruct the investigation into trump's potential mishandling of classified materials. the doj says the fbi's search cast serious doubt on his lawyers claims that there had been a diligent search to return classified material in response to a granaries peÑa. and they argue trump lacks standing over presidential records because the material belongs to the government, and not to him. well the court filing came with this photo showing documents taken by the fbi's taken from trump's office. and for more on this, we want to bring in political analyst michael genovese. he joins us live from los angeles. it's good to have you with. us >> thank you, rosemary. >> so, the justice department's court filing opposes donald trump's court plea for a special master, saying that a review of the classified documents at mar-a-lago has already been done. but for the sake of optics, and of course, to counter claim

but first, 360's randi kaye joins us from outside mar-a-lago tonight. ple have been gathering outside mar-a-lago in support of the former president. when have you been hearing from folks there? >> anderson, a much larger group earlier today still some of them hanging around tonight. almost everyone we spoke with is very angry about the fact that the fbi came here to mar-a-lago just yesterday. they believe, they didn't say what the basis for this was, but they believe that donald trump has been cooperating with the to justice department, investigating the handling of presidential records and presidential documents. they don't think it was a good idea for the fbi to come to mar-a-lago especially when the president wasn't even home. here's what else some of the supporters told me. >> they don't want the truth. that's the bottom line. they don't want the truth. >> you don't think that's why they came here to mar-a-lago, to try to find out the truth and recover the archives? >> no. they are scared to death of donald trump. >> it's just a show. this is maybe i

he posted some alarming things about the fbi raid on mar-a-lago online. keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. i recommend nature made vitamins because i trust their quality. they were the first to be verified by usp... ...an independent organization that sets strict quality and purity standards. nature made. the number one pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. >> as i said, there's a lot of news having to do with this mar-a-lago search warrant, at around 9:15 am, this morning, a man who nbc as identified as as rick walter schiffer, and went to a ohio fbi field office and fired a nail gun at law enforcement personnel. we are not exactly clear about this order of these next immediate events, but the field office schiffer brandished, ar 15 rifle, an alarm was set, of fbi agents response to the attack and shipper flood in his car. you don't northeast on the interstate where he was spotted by state trooper at about 9:37 am. the trooper try to initiate a traf

first the justice department says key parts of its mar-a-lago probe involve highly classified material and must remain secret to protect the integrity of the investigation. doj lawyers opposing a move by media organizations, including cnn, to unseal the probable cause after thefidavit that waso get the search warrant last week. in a separate trump legal drama, a source says eric herschmann has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating january 6. he might remember his blunt testimony before the january 6 committee. >> now i'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. get a great fing criminal defense lawyer, you will need it. >> reporter: that is herschmann talking about how he pushed back on trump lawyer john eastman's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. also the "new york times" reports a top trump organization executive charged with participating in a year's long tax scheme is nearing a plea deal with prosecutors. the "times" says alan weisselberg will now be cooperating in a broader investigation. and also rudy giuliani has been na

we have an unannounced raid of mar-a-lago. e of the former president of the united states donald trump. this is not only unprecedented, but it is also a sign that perhaps the advancement and the doj's plans have gone much further than people have anticipated and expected. one of the primary concerns that we've heard from members of congress and analysts and former people who have actually worked in the white house and those victims from the insurrection on january 6th is perhaps things were not moving as quickly as expected. this is a sign that perhaps the department of justice and merrick garland have gotten much more serious about this investigation than we initially expect the w.eel now be moving to dave aaron bhoerg will be coming -- the palm beach county state attorney who will be telling us what exactly occurred at mar-a-lago today. >> well, thank you for having me. my office was not involved in the search today. this was all the fed. we were not notified of it, so this was kept close to the vest by the feds, and one thin

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

among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at trump's mar-a-lago club, and potentially endanger a falling into the wrong hands. one former justice department official, who in the past oversaw investigations of leaks of classified information, said the type of top secret information described by the people familiar with the probe would probably cause authorities to try to move as quickly as possible to recover sensitive documents that could cause grave harm to u.s. security. the washington post goes on to david loft man -- counter-intelligence section, that investigates leaks of classified information that'll 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 believe there were top secret material still at mar-a-lago, that would lend itself to greater hair on fire motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible. in this report, the washington post also sheds new light on other kinds of sensitive mate

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

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

additional documents remained at the mar-a-lago premises. evidence of obstruction were found at mar-a-lago. here's trump's response. after being heavily redacted, nothing mentioned a nuclear. how do you interpret that charlie? >> it's right that nothing was mentioned on nuclear. those lists of acronyms and abbreviations of the different sorts of highly classified material was found notably did not have restricted data, already, which is the classification category used for nuclear secrets, like how to build a bomb. the washington post reporter early on on this that they heard nuclear information was in this and everyone paid a lot of attention to that. other news outlets including window own have not been able to match that. the lack of this airman suggests this was breaking up the wrong tree. this is not to say that they were not a lot of other very sensitive documents that were haphazardly thrown around at mar-a-lago and these boxes that were not stored correctly. it may be that the nuclear thing was a red herring. >> okay, so ben, this aff