Trump gets passports back after FBI raid following wrong report by CBS anchor O’Donnell
Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the federal government had returned his passports that were taken by FBI agents who searched his Florida home last week — after “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell tweeted incorrectly that the Justice Department did not have the travel documents.
“The DOJ and FBI just returned my passports. Thank you!” the 45th president wrote on his Truth Social platform Tuesday evening. “Unfortunately, when they Raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, 8 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!”
Trump initially accused the FBI of taking the passports Monday afternoon — an explosive allegation that suggested investigators believed he was a flight risk or faced potential charges that would prevent him from leaving the country.
“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” the former president wrote at the time.
“This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!” he added.
Hours later, O’Donnell tweeted: “NEW: According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports. Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home.”
In a follow-up tweet, O’Donnell hedged: “We are also learning tonight that if any items not contained in the warrant were retrieved during the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, they will be returned.”
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich responded by tweeting a screenshot of an email from a member of the Justice Department’s National Security Division that acknowledged the bureau had removed the passports from 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,” the email said.
The email added that the agency was in the process of “returning” Trump’s passports.
In his tweet, Budowich taunted O’Donnell, asking: “[D]id your ‘source’ read you this email? Did you bother asking if they indeed seized the passports?”
“In executing search warrants, the FBI follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes,” the bureau said in a statement late Monday.
An inventory of property that was taken from the resort made no mention of passports, though it did note that agents seized 27 boxes — some of which contained classified documents — two binders of photographs, and a handwritten note, among other items.
The search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, which was unsealed Friday, indicates the Justice Department is investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws pertaining to official records, including the Espionage Act of 1917 — a statute used in recent years to justify harsh sanctions, including against whistleblowers.
The former president and his allies have slammed the FBI and said the raid is the latest phase of a long-running “witch hunt” that dates back to the bureau’s investigation into whether he colluded with Russia’s government during the 2016 campaign.
After the search warrant and inventory were unsealed Friday, Trump claimed that the documents in question had already been declassified and that the FBI search was unnecessary.
“They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago,” he wrote on Truth Social. “It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request. They could have had it anytime they wanted—and that includes LONG ago. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK.”
