Everything we know so far about the FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid
What's in the box?


More than a dozen FBI agents executed a search warrant on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and residence Monday as part of the Justice Department's investigation into whether Trump broke any laws when he improperly took at least 15 boxes of material to Florida when he left office, people familiar with the raid told multiple news organizations. Eric Trump told Fox News on Monday evening that "the National Archives wanted to corroborate whether or not Donald Trump had any documents in his possession."
Some of the material recovered from Mar-a-Lago in February contained highly classified national security information, the National Archives said at the time. "The law governing the preservation of White House materials, the Presidential Records Act, lacks teeth, but criminal statutes can come into play, especially in the case of classified material," The New York Times reports. "Officials can face up to five years in prison for removing classified materials to an unauthorized location," The Wall Street Journal adds.
Technically, a conviction on charges of removing, concealing, or destroying government records would also disqualify Trump from holding federal office again, the Times reports, though legal experts said enforcing that clause would require litigation.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Mar-a-Lago was closed and Trump was in New York City during the raid. He has spent much of the the summer at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, "preparing for a deposition with the New York attorney general in a civil matter related to his finances," the Times reports. Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, who was present during the search, said FBI agents "seized paper."
"Searching a former president's property to look for possible evidence of a crime is highly unusual and would require approval at the top levels of the Justice Department," as well as sign-off from a federal magistrate, The Washington Post says. White House officials said President Biden and his aides learned of the raid from news reports.
"There has been nothing like this in recent decades," John Q. Barrett, a law professor at St. John's University in New York, tells the Journal. "No person is above the law, and we have many Supreme Court decisions about occupants of high office not being above the law, but when someone is out of office, he's just a person like everyone else, living in his home and subject to obeying the law."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The state of Britain's Armed Forces
The Explainer Geopolitical unrest and the unreliability of the Trump administration have led to a frantic re-evaluation of the UK's military capabilities
By The Week UK
-
Anti-anxiety drug has a not-too-surprising effect on fish
Under the radar The fish act bolder and riskier
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Crossword: April 21, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff
-
El Salvador's CECOT prison becomes Washington's go-to destination
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Republicans and Democrats alike are clamoring for access to the Trump administration's extrajudicial deportation camp — for very different reasons
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Supreme Court takes up Trump birthright appeal
Speed Read The New Jersey Attorney General said a constitutional right like birthright citizenship 'cannot be turned on or off at the whims of a single man'
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Court slams Trump, senator visits Ábrego García
Speed Read The case 'should be shocking not only to judges' but all Americans with an 'intuitive sense of liberty'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
The anger fueling the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez barnstorming tour
Talking Points The duo is drawing big anti-Trump crowds in red states
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
Judge threatens Trump team with criminal contempt
Speed Read James Boasberg attempts to hold the White House accountable for disregarding court orders over El Salvador deportation flights
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Why the GOP is nervous about Ken Paxton's Senate run
Today's Big Question A MAGA-establishment battle with John Cornyn will be costly
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
UK-US trade deal: can Keir Starmer trust Donald Trump?
Today's Big Question White House insiders say an agreement is 'two weeks' away but can Britain believe it?
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK
-
A running list of Trump's second-term national security controversies
In Depth Several scandals surrounding national security have rocked the Trump administration
By Justin Klawans, The Week US