Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant: 5 Things Revealed in Unredacted Documents

This week, more details about the search warrant affidavit for Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate were unsealed, offering insight into all the hows, whats, and whys surrounding the raid on the former President's Palm Beach estate. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart denied a request for the entire document to be made public but ruled that "additional portions of the search warrant application should be unsealed." Here are 5 things we learned about the raid from unredacted documents.

One piece of evidence revealed in the new documents is a photograph of 61 boxes in the Mar-a-Lago's storage room. The FBI investigators wrote that "it was always FPOTUS's practice to store accumulated documents in boxes, and that continues to be his practice." They wrote: "The purpose of the photograph was to show FPOTUS the volume of boxes that remained in the STORAGE ROOM," the document says.

"There is probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified NDI (National Defense Information) or that are Presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain at the PREMISES," the affidavit, which was submitted last year and first unsealed in August, states. "There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the PREMISES."

According to the affidavit, between Jan. 21, 2021, and late Aug. 2021, the same set of boxes were stored in at least two different rooms at Mar-a-Lago—including a storage room and Trump's residential suite. It explains that on June 3, 2022, three FBI agents along with the Department of Justice were met by Trump's legal counsel along with a "custodian of records for FPOTUS's post-presidential office" at the residence. Trump's counsel told the DOJ that all the records had been kept in a storage room, adding that he was told there were no other boxes in another location. However, investigators discovered evidence that some boxes may have been moved.

In the revised affidavit, it says that the door to the storage room was "painted gold" and is reachable by several wooden stairs. Investigators say they found other boxes mixed with those containing classified documents, including several which held "merchandise such as challenge coins, garment bags, memorabilia from Mar-a-Lago such as photograph frames, and other décor items.

It also reveals that the FBI had CCTV video showing the boxes being moved days before their raid. "The recording feature of the cameras appears to be motion activated so that footage is only captured when motion is detected within each camera's field of view," the document states.

Trump's valet Walt Natau, also indicted, is not named in the affidavit. However, it refers to the person who moved boxes as "Witness 5," the dates match Natau's indictment. According to the documents, "Witness 5" was filmed moving 64 boxes from the storage room area between May 24, 2022, and June 1, 2022. Of the 64, he only returned between 25 and 30 boxes on June 2, 2022. "It cannot be seen on the video footage where the boxes were moved when they were taken from the storage room area, and accordingly, the current location of the boxes that were removed from the storage room area but not returned to it is unknown," the affidavit states.

Nauta pleaded not guilty last week to charges of colluding with Trump to conceal classified documents from authorities at Mar-a-Lago. The arraignment in a Miami federal court was postponed due to Nauta's lack of a local Florida attorney, but his plea was entered by his lawyer, Stan Woodward, based in Washington, D.C. Nauta, who had been a devoted aide to Trump during his White House tenure and continued working for him in Florida, is now facing multiple charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, document concealment, and lying to the FBI. The most severe charge carries a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years.