this morning. a judge has given donald trump s legal team until 3:00 p.m. to respond to the justice department s motion to unseal the search warrant and property receipt from the mar-a-lago search. overnight, trump posted on his social media platform that he would not oppose the release of the documents. in fact, he says, quote, he would encourage their immediate release. now, that s what he says. but remember, he s had the documents since monday. and he could have released them at any point himself. he still could. he doesn t have to wait until 3:00 p.m. he could release them right now. also, remember, what he said in the past about wanting to release his tax returns. and ultimately not doing it. we ll see. we ll see. as of now, his attorney says it doesn t appear they will object to the release. so attorney general merrick garland says he personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant for trump s mar-a-lago home. what may be the most extraordinary of all the de
release. as we have seen, just because trump says it doesn t mean it s true. he had the documents since monday. he could have released them at any point himself. he hasn t. so as of now his attorney says it doesn t appear that they would object to the release. attorney general merrick garland says he personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant for trump s mar-a-lago home. also developing overnight, potentially significant, very significant reporting by the washington post, this is what it says, quote, classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items fbi agents sought in a search of former president trump s flores dense on monday. that s according to people familiar with the investigation. now, this could elevate the concern over these documents in an enormous way. joining us now is washington post intelligence and national security report er shane harris part of the team that broke this story. explain more what you and your team found
the request to unseal the warrant before any charges are brought really marks a significant and notable step outside of doj norms. now trump s legal team has until 3:00 today to formally respond in court and make clear if they have any objections to unsealing that. we re also learning stunning details about why the fbi may have been looking for these documents so urgently. according to the washington post, federal agents sought classified documents related to nuclear weapons. that s right. the new york times reports officials expressed concerns that allowing those highly sensitive documents to stay at mar-a-lago could leave them vulnerable to access by foreign adversaries and then there is the abc news reporting overnight that the information the fbi sought was so sensitive, authorities felt it had to be taken back immediately. the mind runs wild here. for me, what on earth was the motivation for taking this kind of data from the white house to an unsecured area like ma
we are staying on top of this story. let s begin in washington first with our senior justice correspondent, evan perez. good morning again. tie all these threads together because those three headlines i read all came after garland s really extraordinary press conference not press conference, statement. reporter: statement, right. exactly. you wish it was a press conference. we tried to make it a press conference, and he wouldn t bite. but as you pointed out, look, the context here is important which is that this has been a fight that s been going on for about 18 months, the former president took documents that should never have left the u.s. government s possession and ended up at his beach house in palm beach. the fbi, the national archives have been trying to get it back for all of that time. and among the documents, according to the washington post, that the fbi has been trying to get back is documents are documents that have to do with the u.s. nuclear weapons
quote, encouraging the immediate release. we ll see. trump has had the documents in his possession, though, since monday s search. though there is nothing stopping him and his legal team from making it public at any time. the forward motion here came from attorney general merrick garland, making a big statement yesterday and making it clear that he personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant for trump s home. and also new this morning, the washington post reports the fbi searched trump s home seeking classified documents related to nuclear weapons. let s begin with more from washington on this looming deadline for donald trump. what are you hearing about this? reporter: well, we did see that statement almost 12 hours ago from donald trump saying he s encouraging the re the release of the documents. we haven t seen the documents or a court filing yet. i checked a few minutes ago in the southern district of florida, court docket for the search warrant. noth