Officials with the Department of Justice offered to return to former President Donald Trump his three seized passports, according to a Monday email shared by a Trump spokesperson.
In the exchange, Jay Bratt, chief of the DOJ’s counterintelligence and export control section, corroborated Trump’s public claim that authorities had seized three passports from his Mar-a-Lago resort during a raid last week and offered to return them.
TRUMP CLAIMS FBI TOOK THREE PASSPORTS IN RAID OF MAR-A-LAGO
“We have learned that the filter agents seized three passports belonging to President Trump, two expired and one being his active diplomatic passport. We are returning them, and they will be ready for pickup at WFO at 2 pm today. I am traveling, but you can coordinate further,” the email shared by Taylor Budowich, director of communications for Save America, said.
Budowich made the revelation in response to a tweet from CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell, who said a DOJ source informed her the department was not in possession of the passports.
Earlier Monday, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to rip the DOJ for his missing passports, alleging the department “stole” them from him.
“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump said. “This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”
In the email Budowich released to the public, Bratt noted that two of the three passports were expired, while the other, his diplomatic passport, remained active. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) argued in response to the email that the diplomatic passport did not belong to Trump in the first place.
“A Diplomatic Passport does not belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to the Government. Donald Trump is not in Government,” he tweeted.
A Diplomatic Passport does not belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to the Government. Donald Trump is not in Government. https://t.co/saNYet5Tv3
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) August 15, 2022
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Last Monday, FBI agents conducted a search at Mar-a-Lago and reportedly retrieved roughly 20 boxes of material. They had been seeking classified material believed to be stored at the lavish Palm Beach, Florida, resort and recovered a number of items marked “secret,” “top secret,” and “confidential,” according to a search warrant in the case unsealed last week.
Trump has maintained that he declassified those documents and denied allegations of wrongdoing. He has also claimed that privileged material was seized in the raid and demanded they be returned.
