March 1 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday took back to Florida boxes of documents that the FBI had seized from Mar-a-Lago after executing a court-ordered search warrant in August 2022.
About 15 boxes were put onto Air Force One and sent to Palm Beach where the president is spending the weekend at his estate.
The classified documents case by special counsel Jack Smith against Trump, in which Trump pleaded not guilty, was dropped in November after he won the 2024 election.
“The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “They are being brought down to Florida and will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library. Justice finally won out. I did absolutely nothing wrong. This was merely an attack on a political opponent that, obviously, did not work well. Justice in our Country will now be restored.”
White House staffers were seen loading roughly 15 boxes onto the rear of Air Force One.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told reporters the boxes were loaded onto Air Force One and they contain “personal items that belong to the president.”
Alina Habb, counselor to the president and formerly his private attorney, declined to say where they will be stored or if the White House is changing any storage protocol following the FBI search.
“These are President Trump’s things. These are his items, and they needed to be returned to him,” Habba said. “They were personal items. You can’t just go into somebody’s home in this country. This is what differentiates us from a third world country.”
She also said: “Frankly, this was a hoax, as we knew.”
The National Archives had asked for the documents to be returned and then the Department of Justice got involved.
Fifteen boxes were provided by Trump in January 2022, including 197 classified: 98 marked secret and the others confidential.
During the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago Club on Aug. 8, 2022, another 102 documents were recovered from Trump’s office and a storage room. Seven were marked top secret, 54 secret, 31 confidential.
After the FBI seized the boxes, some of which were found in a public ballroom, bathroom and a bedroom, they were sent to the National Archives.
Trump was charged in an indictment with 37 criminal counts for charges including violations of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements to investigators.
In a superseding indictment, Trump allegedly schemed with co-defendants to delete security video at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The case against Trump’s co-defendants, aide Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos De Oliveira, also ended.
