Passports belonging to former President Donald Trump were returned on Monday afternoon after they were taken during the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last week.
“In executing search warrants, the FBI follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes,” the FBI said in a Monday night statement.
A Justice Department official confirmed that the passports are back in Trump’s possession.
The return of the passports followed a Monday Truth Social statement from Trump, alleging that agents “stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else.”
CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell disputed the statement on Monday.
“NEW: According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports,” she wrote on Twitter. “Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home.”
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich immediately contradicted her statement, sharing an email from the Chief of the Justice Department Counterintelligence and Export Control Section Jay Bratt.
Trump lawyer Christina Bobb criticized the FBI for seizing Trump’s passports.
“I think this goes to show the level of audacity that they have,” Bobb told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham. “I think it goes to show how aggressive they were, how overreaching they were, that they were willing to go past the four corners of the warrant and take whatever they felt was appropriate or they felt that they could take.”
The FBI executed a search warrant over Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate as a part of the Justice Department’s probe into whether or not the former President illegally moved classified White House documents after his administration ended.
