DOJ Wants Mar-a-Lago Footage, as Trump Considers Making Raid Tapes Public

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly seeking Mar-a-Lago security camera footage two weeks after federal agents raided former President Donald Trump's home.

Federal authorities recovered over 300 classified documents from Trump since January, including a significant number retrieved during the August 8 raid, according to a Monday report from The New York Times. The DOJ acquired security camera footage from Trump's South Florida residence on June 22 and is now seeking footage from the weeks leading up to the FBI raid, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

Trump has also reportedly been considering releasing footage taken during the raid itself. The former president's son Eric Trump says that the August 8 footage captured federal agents in parts of Mar-a-Lago that they were not authorized to search after unsuccessfully requesting that cameras be turned off.

The former president has suggested that agents may have been "planting" evidence during the raid. Trump's former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham has argued that he does not actually want the surveillance footage to be released, telling CNN's Erin Burnett last week that the footage would have already been released if he had wanted it to be public.

Donald Trump Mar-a-Lago Raid Security Footage DOJ
Former President Donald Trump is pictured at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster, New Jersey, on July 31, 2022. The Department of Justice is reportedly seeking security camera footage of Mar-a-Lago taken in the... Jonathan Ferrey/LIV Golf/Getty

The footage that has already been acquired by the DOJ, taken from Mar-a-Lago as far back as late April, reportedly "raised concerns for investigators" due to it capturing people moving boxes through hallways and possibly changing containers that documents were stored in. The search warrant that was used in the FBI raid was reportedly authorized in part due to the footage, along with witness interviews.

Additional footage is being sought because DOJ investigators are not certain that they have recovered all classified materials that Trump may have taken while leaving the White House in January 2021.

Federal agents took 26 boxes with them after searching Trump's residence, including 11 boxes that contained documents marked classified or "top secret." Trump has argued that he had a "standing order" to declassify all documents that he took just before leaving office.

However, no other evidence of Trump's order has been presented and some of the documents reportedly included nuclear secrets, which presidents do not have the power to unilaterally declassify. In addition, the three federal laws cited in the search warrant—which include the Espionage Act—do not necessarily depend on the classified status of the documents.

Under the Presidential Records Act, Trump was required to transfer all official documents to the National Archives after leaving office. Representatives for Trump were reportedly contacted by the archives and asked to help facilitate the return of documents after President Joe Biden took office. However, they were rebuffed by Trump, who described the boxes of documents as "mine," three advisers familiar with his comments told the Times.

Trump reportedly turned over a number of sensitive documents to DOJ officials who visited Mar-a-Lago in early June. Around the same time, the former president's attorney Christina Bobb, the "custodian of the documents," also signed a statement that declared all remaining classified documents "had been returned," two people familiar with the statement reportedly said.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.

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About the writer


Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more

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