DOJ asks court to unseal Mar-a-Lago raid warrant; AG Merrick Garland personally signed off on Trump search

Attorney General Merrick Garland said he “personally approved” the decision to seek a search warrant for former President Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago, saying the Justice Department has filed a motion to unseal the search warrant and property receipt from the FBI’s raid, amid “substantial public interest” in the matter, while defending the “integrity” of law enforcement officials. 

In a rare public statement, days after the FBI’s early morning raid on Trump’s private residence in Palm Beach, Fla. 

The raid was related to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) effort to collect records and materials the former president took with him from Washington, D.C., to Mar-a-Lago–a matter the agency referred to the Justice Department. 

“Since I became attorney general, I have made clear that the Department of Justice will speak through its court filings and its work just now,” Garland said. “The Justice Department has filed a motion in the southern district of Florida to unseal a search warrant and property receipt relating to a court approved search that the FBI conducted earlier this week. That search was a premises located in Florida belonging to the former president.” 

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“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” Garland said, adding that the Justice Department “does not take such a decision lightly where possible.” 

“It is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken,” Garland said. 

He then addressed “recent unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors. I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked.”