Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks on FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department has filed a motion requesting the search warrant and property receipt for former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago property be unsealed. Trump and his legal team now have until Friday to respond.

The news comes days after the FBI executed the search warrant as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, some classified. Garland's remarks on Thursday follow days of silence from the Justice Department with regard to the search, as is the department’s normal practice for ongoing investigations. 

Some background on the investigation: The Justice Department inquiry is about documents that Trump removed from the White House as his term was ending in January 2021. Earlier this year, officials from the National Archives and Records Administration, known as NARA, recovered 15 boxes of presidential documents from Mar-a-Lago. Investigators subpoenaed NARA for access to the classified documents retrieved from the property in May 2022 and visited Trump's attorneys in June when they asked them to secure the room where the documents were. The search on Monday was an escalation of the investigation.

Here's what else you need to know:

Following the Justice Department's filing to unseal the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, former President Donald Trump’s team has contacted outside attorneys about how to proceed. 

Among the options they are considering is challenging the Justice Department's motion to unseal the warrant, a source familiar with the discussion says.  

Trump's orbit was caught off guard by Attorney General Merrick Garland's announcement. 

They have until 3 p.m. Friday to respond.

CNN, joined by the Washington Post, NBC News and Scripps, asked a court on Thursday to unseal documents connected to the FBI search of former President Trump’s Florida residence this week – including documents not covered by the Justice Department’s own bid to unseal a selection of the warrant materials.

Specifically, CNN and the other outlets are asking for the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida to unseal the entire record filed with the court, including all probable cause affidavits filed in support of the search warrant.  

The request was filed after the Justice Department submitted its own request with the federal court to unseal certain warrant materials. In remarks announcing the request, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is seeking the release of the “search warrant and property receipt” from the FBI’s search.  

But there are other documents that prosecutors file with federal courts when seeking search warrant, including affidavits from investigators laying out why they believe that there is probable cause that a crime was committed and that evidence of that crime existed in recent days at the site where the search was sought.

Garland said Thursday that he would not be “providing further details as to the basis of the search at this time.” The department also declined to comment on why it is not seeking to unseal the affidavits.

In the unsealing filing by CNN and the other outlets with the court, they pointed to “the historic importance of these events.”

Similar requests filed separately by the conservative group Judicial Watch, as well as the news outlets the Times Union and the New York Times, have prompted a magistrate judge to order that the Justice Department respond to the requests by 5 p.m. on Monday. That response can be filed secretly, the court said, but the department will also have to file a redacted version on the public docket. 

Former President Trump and his legal team have not yet reached a decision on how to respond to the Justice Department's motion to unseal the warrant used in the Mar-a-Lago search, a source familiar with their thinking tells CNN. 

The motion notes that the government favors unsealing it "absent objection from the former president."

The federal court in Florida court must be told by 3 p.m. ET on Friday if Trump opposes the release.

In a pair of posts to Truth Social following Attorney General Merrick Garland's statement on Thursday, former President Donald Trump continued to claim that his attorneys were "cooperating fully" and had developed "very good relationships" with federal investigators prior to Monday's search at his Florida property Mar-a-Lago. 

The former President did not respond to Garland's announcement that Justice Department officials had filed a motion to unseal the search warrant that granted FBI agents access to Mar-a-Lago on Monday and the receipt of items that were seized during the search. 

In his first public statement since federal agents searched former President Donald Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday said that the Justice Department had filed in court a request that the search warrant and property receipt from the search be unsealed.

Garland also said he "personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter."

He noted that the department did not comment on the search on the day that it occurred. He pointed out that the search was confirmed by Trump that evening. He said that copies of the warrant and the warrant receipt were provided to the Trump lawyers who were on site during the search.

The statement comes after days of silence from the Justice Department with regard to the search, as is the department's normal practice for ongoing investigations. Garland stressed that some of the department's work must happen outside of public view.

In filing with the court, the Justice Department said that Trump should have the chance to respond to its request to unseal the documents. Responses to the Justice Department's request are due by August 25, according to the case's docket.

The Justice Department has been instructed by a federal court in Florida to confer with former President Donald Trump about its request to unseal certain warrant documents from the FBI Mar-a-Lago search.

The court must be told by 3 p.m. ET on Friday if Trump opposes the release.

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday said that the Justice Department had filed a request in court to unseal the search warrant and property receipt from the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Read the motion:

The Justice Department has officially moved to unseal the search warrant executed by the FBI this week at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to newly filed court documents. 

“At the time the warrant was initially executed, the Department provided notice directly to former President Trump’s counsel. The Department did not make any public statements about the search, and the search apparently attracted little or no public attention as it was taking place. Later that same day, former President Trump issued a public statement acknowledging the execution of the warrant. In the days since, the search warrant and related materials have been the subject of significant interest and attention from news media organizations and other entities,” the Justice Department writes. 

The DOJ then argues for unsealing the search warrant, citing “the intense public interest presented by a search of a residence of a former President.”

The filing confirms that the search warrant was “signed and approved by the Court on August 5." On Thursday, the DOJ filed "the redacted Property Receipt listing items seized pursuant to the search," according to its unsealing motion.

"Former President Trump, through counsel, was provided copies of each of these documents on August 8, 2022, as part of the execution of the search,” the filing adds.