Former US President Donald Trump has lashed out at the FBI following last week's raid of his Mar-a-Lago home, saying officers "grabbed everything in sight" as he dubbed them "common criminals".
A new report states that top officials in the White House counsel's office had been interviewed about documents that Trump took home.
The 76-year-old sarcastically thanked the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI for returning his passports in a fiery post on the Truth Social platform.
Donald Trump is yet to officially confirm another run for the presidency in 2024.
SHANNON STAPLETON
He said: "The DOJ and FBI just returned my passports. Thank you!
"Unfortunately, when they Raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, eight days ago, they just opened their arms and grabbed everything in sight, much as a common criminal would do. This shouldn't happen in America!"
It had previously been reported that the FBI had returned the three passports to Trump.
It was confirmed last week that the FBI interviewed Donald Trump's former White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his deputy in its investigation into sensitive documents stored at the former president's home, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
It is unclear when Cipollone was spoken to, while his deputy, Patrick Philbin, was interviewed in the spring, according to the New York Times, which earlier reported the news.
FBI agents raided Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property earlier this month
MARCO BELLO
During a search on August 8 of Trump'sMar-a-Lagohome, FBI agents removed classified documents including somemarked as top secret, the Justice Department has said.
The search was carried out as part of an investigation into whether documents were illegally removed from the White House after Republican Trump left office in January 2021 following his election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.
The agents removed 11 sets of classified documents including some marked as top secret, the Justice Department said on Friday, while also disclosing it had probable cause to conduct the search based on possible Espionage Act violations.
The disclosures were made in a search warrant approved by a US magistrate judge and accompanying documents released four days after agents searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach.
The Espionage Act, one of three laws cited in the warrant application, dates to 1917 and makes it a crime to release information that could harm national security.
Trump has said that the records were "all declassified" and placed in "secure storage."
