Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that he had “personally approved” the search of former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida on Monday and condemned “unsubstantiated attacks” on his department and the FBI.

Earlier this week, around 30 FBI agents, according to Donald Trump’s son Eric, landed at the former president’s lavish residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Donald Trump was in (eastern) New Jersey at the time.

Coercion was not necessary because FBI agents had previously notified the President’s Protective Service of their arrival and searches, NBC reported.

Once inside, they searched the house for several hours, including a safe according to Donald Trump. Numerous paper documents were seized, the online newspaper Politico said, citing a source familiar with the matter.

“Nothing comparable has ever happened to a former president of the United States,” Donald Trump said in a statement on Monday, denouncing a coup “neither necessary nor appropriate” and claiming to be the victim of “political persecution.”

Documents taken by the former president

According to Seamus Hughes, a criminal expert at George Washington University, warrants in the southern Florida district where Mar-a-Lago is located generally remain sealed. “Each local jurisdiction determines its own rules on this,” he explains.

Eric Trump, however, revealed Monday on Fox News that the search related to documents taken by the former president when he left the White House in January 2021.

Already last January he had to deliver 15 boxes full of documents to the National Archives. The National Archives holds all the official documents of current and former presidents.

A law on presidential documents stipulates that all official documents of a sitting president must be turned over to the National Archives upon his departure. But this law does not actually provide for penalties.