The FBI agents who conducted the search at Mar-a-Lago needed special clearance to view the documents found there, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has said.
The top law enforcement agency made the revelation in a 36-page court filing on Tuesday as they responded to former President Donald Trump’s request to have a third-party individual, a so-called “special master”, review the documents gathered from his south Florida private club and residence on 8 August.
DoJ outlined the classification of some of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago, the attempts that Mr Trump’s staff supposedly made to hide documents from the FBI as well as the disorganised way the documents had been stored.
“In some instances, even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents,” the agency said in its filing.
A photo submitted by the department shows documents with the marking, “contains sensitive compartmented information up to HCS-P/SI/TK”.
The documents were shown on a floor at the club next to a box containing a framed Time magazine cover.
“HCS” refers to human clandestine sources and the intelligence they supply, which is highly classified to ensure the safety of the sources.
Mr Trump and his supporters have blasted the FBI for searching his personal belongings and spaces, such as his safe and the closet of former first lady Melania Trump.
The DoJ revealed in its Tuesday filing that the classified documents had been mixed up with personal items, revealing the chaotic nature of the documents’ storage.
“Evidence of commingling personal effects with documents bearing classification markings is relevant evidence of the statutory offenses under investigation,” the department said.
Mr Trump has attempted to paint the search as politically motivated and sent in the application for a special master review of the documents claiming that many were covered by executive privilege and should be given back to him.
Mr Trump and his allies have also claimed that he declassified the documents taken to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House. Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton has said that he was unaware of any special declassification arrangement.
The intelligence community is conducting a damage assessment of the documents found during the search.
“The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) are working together to facilitate a classification review of relevant materials, including those recovered during the search,” the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers in a letter, according to Politico.
She said her office will spearhead an “assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents”.
She added that the assessment will be done in such a way as to “not unduly interfere with DOJ’s ongoing criminal investigation”.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see. Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!”
