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Former President Donald J. Trump said on Monday that the F.B.I. had searched his Palm Beach, Fla., home and had broken open a safe \u2014 an account signaling a major escalation in the various investigations into the final stages of his presidency.<\/p>\n
The search, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, when he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents<\/a>, according to a person familiar with their contents.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action to retrieve them. The case was referred to the Justice Department by the archives early this year.<\/p>\n The search marked the latest remarkable turn in the long-running investigations into Mr. Trump\u2019s actions before, during and after his presidency \u2014 and even as he weighs announcing another candidacy for the White House.<\/p>\n It came as the Justice Department has stepped up its separate inquiry into Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to remain in office after his defeat at the polls in the 2020 election and as the former president also faces an accelerating criminal inquiry in Georgia and civil actions in New York.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has long cast the F.B.I. as a tool of Democrats who have been out to get him, and the search set off a furious reaction among his supporters in the Republican Party and on the far right of American politics. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader in the House, suggested that he intended to investigate Attorney General Merrick B. Garland if Republicans took control of the House in November.<\/p>\n The F.B.I. would have needed to convince a judge that it had probable cause that a crime had been committed, and that agents might find evidence at Mar-a-Lago, to get a search warrant. Proceeding with a search on a former president\u2019s home would almost surely have required sign-off from top officials at the bureau and the Justice Department.<\/p>\n The search, however, does not mean prosecutors have determined that Mr. Trump committed a crime.<\/p>\n An F.B.I. representative declined to comment, as did Justice Department officials. The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, was appointed by Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump was in the New York area at the time of the search. \u201cAnother day in paradise,\u201d he said Monday night during a telephone rally for Sarah Palin, who is running for a congressional seat in Alaska.<\/p>\n Eric Trump, one of his sons, told Fox News that he was the one who informed his father that the search was taking place, and he said the search warrant was related to presidential documents.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump, who campaigned for president in 2016 criticizing Hillary Clinton\u2019s practice of maintaining a private email server for government-related messages while she was secretary of state, was known throughout his term to rip up official material that was intended to be held for presidential archives. One person familiar with his habits said that included classified material that was shredded in his bedroom and elsewhere.<\/p>\n The search was at least in part for whether any records remained at the club, a person familiar with it said. It took place on Monday morning, the person said, although Mr. Trump said agents were still there many hours later.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,\u201d Mr. Trump said, maintaining it was an effort to stop him from running for president in 2024. \u201cSuch an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey even broke into my safe!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump did not share any details about what the F.B.I. agents said they were searching for.<\/p>\n Aides to President Biden said they were stunned by the development and learned of it from Twitter.<\/p>\n The search came as the Justice Department has also been stepping up questioning of former Trump aides who had been witnesses to discussions and planning in the White House of Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to overturn his election loss.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has been the focus of questions asked by federal prosecutors in connection with a scheme to send \u201cfake\u201d electors to Congress for the certification of the Electoral College. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol also continues its work and is interviewing witnesses this week.<\/p>\n The law governing the preservation of White House materials, the Presidential Records Act, lacks teeth, but criminal statutes can come into play, especially in the case of classified material.<\/p>\n Criminal codes, which carry jail time, can be used to prosecute anyone who \u201cwillfully injures or commits any depredation against any property of the United States\u201d and anyone who \u201cwillfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates or destroys\u201d government documents.<\/p>\n Samuel R. Berger, a national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, pleaded guilty in 2015 to a misdemeanor charge for removing classified material from a government archive<\/a>. In 2007, Donald Keyser, an Asia expert and former senior State Department official, was sentenced to prison after he confessed to keeping more than 3,000 sensitive documents<\/a> \u2014 ranging from the classified to the top secret \u2014 in his basement.<\/p>\n In 1999, the C.I.A. announced it had suspended the security clearance of its former director, John M. Deutch, after concluding that he had improperly handled national secrets<\/a> on a desktop computer at his home.<\/p>\n In January of this year, the archives retrieved 15 boxes that Mr. Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago from the White House residence when his term ended. The boxes included material subject to the Presidential Records Act, which requires that all documents and records pertaining to official business be turned over to the archives.<\/p>\n The items in the boxes included documents, mementos, gifts and letters. The archives did not describe the classified material it found other than to say that it was \u201cclassified national security information.\u201d<\/p>\n Because the National Archives \u201cidentified classified information in the boxes,\u201d the agency \u201chas been in communication with the Department of Justice,\u201d David S. Ferriero, the national archivist, told Congress at the time.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors subsequently began a grand jury investigation<\/a>, according to two people briefed on the matter. Prosecutors issued a subpoena earlier this year to the archives to obtain the boxes of classified documents, according to the two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n The authorities also made interview requests to people who worked in the White House in the final days of Mr. Trump\u2019s presidency, according to one of the people.<\/p>\n In the spring, a small coterie of federal agents visited Mar-a-Lago in search of some documents, according to a person familiar with the meeting. At least one of the agents was involved in counterintelligence, according to the person.<\/p>\n The question of how Mr. Trump has handled sensitive material and documents he received as president loomed throughout his time in the White House, and beyond.<\/p>\n