FBI searched for classified nuclear documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who raided Donald Trump’s Florida house, Mar-a-Lago, were searching for classified documents on nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported citing people familiar with the investigation.

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday said that he personally authorised the raid after seeking permission for a search warrant but did not discuss the investigation in great detail.

The Post, quoting officials, didn’t provide further details of the specific information sought by the agents in the raid. They also did not disclose whether the documents were related to weapons from the US or some other country.

They also refused to answer if such documents were recovered as part of the search. But they expressed apprehension that such documents said to be possessed by Trump have the potential to fall into the wrong hands.

But the people closely involved in the raid told The New York Times that the documents were so sensitive and important to national security that the Justice Department had no choice but to try and retrieve them.

The FBI is being increasingly attacked by Conservative politicians seeking an explanation from the Justice Department on what warranted the search.

In a late-night post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump said that he would "not oppose the release of documents," adding, "I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents."

He added that the Justice Department had filed in court a request that the search warrant and property receipt from the search be unsealed.

It has argued for unsealing the search warrant, citing "the intense public interest presented by a search of a residence of a former President."