Documents seized from Trump home held US secrets about Iran, China

Highly sensitive intelligence on Iran and China was in some of the documents recovered by the FBI during an August search of former US president Donald Trump's home in Florida, The Washington Post has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

They included secret documents that described intelligence work regarding China and at least one of them described Iran's missile programme, the report said on Friday, adding that the documents were considered to be among the most sensitive in the materials seized by the FBI.

The release of information in these documents would pose multiple risks, including endangering people helping US intelligence efforts and compromising collection efforts, the newspaper cited experts as saying.

The US Justice Department is investigating whether Trump broke the law by taking government records, including about 100 classified documents, to his Florida estate after leaving office in January 2021.

The department is also looking into whether Trump or his team obstructed justice when the FBI sent agents to search his home and has warned that more classified documents may still be missing.

Representatives for Trump did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the newspaper report. 

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for confirmation of the Post report.