Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Sunday that former President Donald Trump “should have turned over all” of the documents seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation before he left the White House.
During an appearance on ABC News’ “This Week,” Blunt ripped the timing of the FBI’s unprecedented raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home but admitted the former president “should have turned the documents over.”
“He should have turned the documents over, and apparently had turned a number of documents over, George,” Blunt told anchor George Stephanopoulos. “What I wonder about is why this could go on for almost two years and less than 100 days before the election, suddenly we’re talking about this rather than the economy, or inflation, or even the student loan program you and I were going to talk about today.”
“Good thing they’re going to have a special master look at these documents to sort through the documents that the president had every right to have and the documents that he hadn’t yet turned over. I understand he had turned over many documents, he should have turned over all of them. I imagine he knows that very well now as well,” he said.
SEARCH WARRANT AFFIDAVIT FOR TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO ESTATE: FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
On Friday, a federal judge in Florida unsealed the redacted, 38-page affidavit used to justify the search warrant executed on Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 8.
The affidavit said Trump had turned over 15 boxes to the National Archives and Records Administration in January 2022 and that the FBI later identified classified records in all but one of those boxes. The FBI said it had “probable cause to believe” that more records that have classified information, which include national defense information, would be at Mar-a-Lago.
The affidavit was heavily redacted, with 20 out of the 38 pages significantly or fully redacted.
Trump called the raid “one of the most egregious assaults on democracy” on social media Saturday.
