- Trump claims that FBI agents took three of his passports during the Mar-a-Lago raid last week.
- The former president said one of the passports was expired.
- High-ranking US officials often receive a special diplomatic passport.
Former President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that the FBI seized three of his passports during a raid on his Mar-a-Lago property, during which agents took 15 boxes including some with classified records.
"In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else," Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. "This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country."
Trump and many of his Republican allies have bemoaned the fact that a federal judge signed off on a search warrant for his Florida residence, leading to an unprecedented search of a former president's property. Trump has claimed the search itself is evidence of political bias even though he hand-picked the current FBI director Christopher Wray.
Nowhere on the list of seized items is there an entry for a passport, but the descriptions of the items are often vague. Multiple entries contain descriptions with variations of "Box labeled A-35." One listing is just for "Miscellaneous Secret Documents."
While it may seem unusual to most Americans, it is common for top officials to hold multiple US passports. As Slate previously reported, presidents are among a group of officials that are issued official passports and they can retain these after leaving office. The Obama White House even released a video that showed a picture of Barack Obama's official passport that was issued once he took office, including a line on the back page that said "THE BEARER IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES."
It's unclear if Trump has any additional passports.
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously told reporters that he personally signed off on the raid. He also suggested that Trump's decision to widely publicize the episode led to the Justice Department moving to unseal the search warrant and the general list of items that agents took as a result of the search.
The FBI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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