- The Department of Justice unsealed it's most detailed inventory yet of the items recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
- The list said the FBI recovered 48 empty folders marked "CLASSIFIED," alongside other documents.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed on Friday that the FBI recovered 48 empty folders marked "CLASSIFIED" after executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last month.
The revelation was part of a broader inventory of the items recovered by agents, the most detailed yet.
"The investigative team has reviewed the seized materials infurtherance of its ongoing investigation, evaluating the relevance and character of each item seized, and making preliminary determinations about investigative avenues suggested or warranted by the character and nature of the seized items," read an accompanying letter.
It added: "The seized materials will continue to be used to further the government's investigation, and the investigative team will continue to use and evaluate the seized materials as it takes further investigative steps."
At a Thursday hearing in West Palm Beach, Florida, US District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled to unseal a status report from the team investigating former President Donald Trump's handling of national security information.
But Cannon said she needed more time to consider Trump's request for a court-appointed special master to sift through materials seized from Mar-a-Lago that could be privileged.
The judge's statement capped a widely-watched hearing in which Trump's lawyers accused the DOJ of "outrageous" conduct and prosecutors highlighted the national security risks associated with the government records stored at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump's defense in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago search has largely revolved around his claim that he had declassified the materials seized from his home. That's despite the fact that the three federal laws he's being investigated for violating don't depend on the classification level of government records, and 18 former Trump administration aides told CNN they had no knowledge of any standing declassification order.
The Justice Department also noted in a Tuesday night filing that Trump's lawyers made no assertion of executive privilege and did not raise any issues around classification in conversations they had with US officials in the months leading up to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has also accused the FBI of planting evidence at Mar-a-Lago, and while his lawyers made vague allegations of bias against the DOJ and the FBI, they did not allege that evidence was planted at the former president's Florida residence during Thursday's hearing.
Earlier this week, the former president also appeared to undermine a June 3 letter that his representative signed stating that all classified government materials had been returned pursuant to a grand jury subpoena.
In a Truth Social post, Trump, referencing a photo the DOJ had released the day before, acknowledged that highly classified documents the FBI recovered in its August 8 search were found stored in "cartons" in his Mar-a-Lago office.
The revelation added a new layer to the Justice Department's account in its Tuesday filing of investigators' suspicions that they had been misled by the June 3 letter and suspected sensitive documents and government records were still at Mar-a-Lago.
The DOJ also revealed in the filing that it's investigating "likely" efforts to obstruct its investigation into Trump's handling of national security information. The former president's lawyers did not address the allegation in court on Thursday.