By Dareh GregorianNBC
News
Donald Trump has complained that the seizure of his passports by FBI agents showed investigators went on a rampage searching his Florida resort, but new information about how and where the documents were found could spell big trouble. for the former president, according to legal experts consulted by our sister network, NBC News.
In a footnote to Tuesday's court filing striking down Trump's demand for a special inspector to sort through evidence seized at his Mar-a-Lago property, Justice Department officials responded to his argument. that it was overkill to take three passports that were later returned.
[Trump Lawyers Respond to Justice Department on Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago]
Consistent with the terms of the search warrant, the Justice Department said in the filing that "the government seized the contents of a desk drawer that contained classified documents and government records mixed with other documents."
"The other documents included two official passports, one of which was expired, and a personal passport, which was expired," he explained.
"The location of the passports is relevant evidence in an investigation into the unauthorized retention and mishandling of national defense information."
NBC News legal analyst Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney, said the reason the passports are "relevant evidence" is clear: They point squarely at Trump.
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“In most searches you're looking for identity documents to link a suspect to the evidence you're looking for: photos, IDs, utility bills.
If the contraband is found in the same room as the identity documents, it can be inferred that that person had dominance and control over the documents,” explained McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.
According to the Justice Department, the drawer with the classified documents and passports was in Trump's "Office 45" at Mar-a-Lago.
[DOJ Says Trump Team Likely 'Hide and Eliminate' Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago]
“Finding the passports next to the classified documents suggests that he handled them himself,” McQuade said.
It also makes it difficult for Trump to argue that movers or helpers mishandled the documents or that he was unaware of their presence, McQuade said, arguing: "That's pretty damning evidence."
NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, agreed.
“The two things we always take when executing search warrants are evidence of the crime and evidence of ownership or possession information,” Kirschner said.
“If there are utility bills at the scene, the bills are seized, not because they are evidence of a crime, but because they are evidence of possession and ownership,” he added.
Trump complained a week after the Aug. 8 search that FBI agents "stole my three passports," just after a Justice Department official emailed Trump's lawyers to say the Justice Department Justice had the passports and was returning them.
[“We worried about it all the time”: this is how Trump handled secret documents when he was president]
In their filing asking for a special master, Trump's attorneys argued that by returning the passports, investigators acknowledged that "they were not validly seized."
His legal team responded to the Justice Department's filing Wednesday night, with arguments about the special master application set for Thursday.
This is an aerial view of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022.Steve Helber/AP
Trump's attorney, Christina Bobb, told Fox News last month that the agents' seizure of the passports "is going to show the level of audacity they have."
"I think it shows how aggressive they were, how over the top they were, that they were willing to go beyond the four corners of the order and take whatever they felt was appropriate or felt they could take," Bobb explained.
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The government filing on Tuesday noted that the search warrant expressly allowed agents to seize items that were mixed with “classification-marked documents,” and McQuade and Kirschner agreed that there was most likely no reason. so that the Government would keep the passports, which according to them would have been photographed and copied before being returned to Trump's lawyers.
"You just have to be able to document that the passport was found with the contraband," Kirschner said.
McQuade said investigators returned the passports "because they got what they needed from them."
