The FBI is returning the property seized during the 2022 raid of Mar-a-Lago to President Trump, according to the White House.
“The FBI is giving the President his property back that was taken during the unlawful and illegal raids. We are taking possession of the boxes today and loading them onto Air Force One,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement on Friday.
Cheung added that some of the boxes were loaded onto the plane before Trump’s Friday flight back to Florida.
Alina Habba, the president’s counselor, said Friday that she loaded some of the “infamous” boxes herself onto Air Force 1.
“Justice has been and will continue to be restored in this country under President Trump. TRUTH AND JUSTICE ALWAYS WIN IN THE END. God Bless America,” she said in a Friday post on X.
The FBI took 33 boxes during the August 2022 court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago as part of a probe into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and alleged obstruction of officials’ efforts to get them back.
The raid prompted heavy criticism of the FBI by Trump and his allies. The president characterized it as unnecessary. He was contacted prior to the raid by the Justice Department (DOJ) and the National Archives to return the records.
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate whether Trump mishandled classified records. The case ended up being dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in mid-July last year, saying in the ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
“The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers,” Cannon wrote in the 93-page ruling.
Trump said some of the boxes the DOJ gave back will be in his future presidential library.
“They [boxes] 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,” he said Friday on Truth Social. “Justice in our Country will now be restored.”
