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FBI searched Mar-a-Lago because officials suspected Trump never gave back some material sought by the National Archives: report

Police outside Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
  • FBI agents raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago home on Monday, sparking a furious response.
  • The Washington Post reported that the FBI moved because it believed Trump withheld documents.
  • Trump gave 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives this year, but perhaps not everything.

The FBI launched its search of former President Donald Trump's Florida because officials suspected that he held on to some records he was meant to return, The Washington Post reported.

Trump took boxes full of documents back to his Florida home when he left office in 2021, leading the National Archives and Records Administration to request them back.

Earlier in 2022, Trump returned 15 boxes. But, per anonymous sources speaking to The Post, officials suspected that this did not cover all the material he was supposed to return. They were also said to have suspected that Trump's staff were "not truthful at times" about the material.

Multiple other reports, and Trump's son Eric Trump, have also linked the Mar-a-Lago raid to documents taken from the White House.

Trump lawyer Christina Bobb said on Tuesday that agents took around 12 boxes from Mar-a-Lago on Monday, and that their warrant was granted in relation to the Presidential Records Act.

That act makes all presidential records public property, and not the property of the officials who created them, even the president.

The Department of Justice confirmed in February that some documents found in the 15 returned boxes contained information that was marked as "classified national security information." 

The New York Times reported in May that a grand jury investigation into whether classified documents that were in Mar-a-Lago were mishandled.