be located there. post sources did not offer additional details about what type of information the agents were seeking, such as whether it involves weapons belonging to the united states or some other nation, nor did it say whether any documents were recovered as part of their search. cnn is reaching out to donald trump and his representatives for comment. but this adds a whole new level to a day that was already extraordinary, as the attorney general of the united states announced the doj has asked the judge to unseal the mar-a-lago search warrant and property receipt, both of which donald trump did receive. i want to bring in cnn national security analyst juliet kei yam. she served at the department of homeland security under president obama. welcome to the show. thanks for having me. let s start with this. there are so many questions right now. and this is a bombshell. if the post reporting is correct that this had something to do with documents relating to nuclear
transparency. that s what donald trump and his allies have clamored for. and now the attorney general, today, is offering the former president exactly what he asked for. the department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances, and the substantial public interest in this matter. first, i personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter. the department does not take such decision lightly. where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search zand to narrowly scope ay search that is undertaken. a judge says the justice department has until 3:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow to inform the court if trump s lawyers will
jiu jitsu move. he was very careful in saying the president himself has called attention to this search. and that s why i feel comfortable speaking about it. what happened today, i agree with peter. absolutely extraordinary. it s carved into the hall of the department of justice s facade that thou shalt not discuss ongoing investigations. for the attorney general to get up and address the nuances of the search warrant, absolutely extraordinary. i think it was the right move. i wish he had done it sooner. i appreciate he stuck up and put in a good word for the men and women of the fbi. i think their integrity has been baselessly attacked. peter, why do you think a.g. garland took this extraordinary move? is it because he knows what is in that search warrant and he knows how serious it is? or is it for some other reason? well, i think there s primarily guided by whether or not there s compelling public interest. t and you mentioned that s standard and there is within
well, sara, when this story first broke about the search in mar-a-lago and i was asked what would be the range of classified information that s conceivably stored there, and i speculated that, you know, nuclear weapons-related information, you know, would kind of top the range, the holiest of holy. but i doubted it because i thought i thought even donald trump would protect those kind of secrets. well, apparently that s not the case. now, having said that, we don t know, as juliet said in your last segment, exactly what we re talking about here, whether this is foreign information on foreign nuclear weapons or the worst case, as juliet said, our own systems. and potentially, this is quite dangerous.
attacking fbi offices i think as a direct result you can draw a line to that immediate response from trump and his supporters immediately following that search. so, we absolutely have to dial down the rhetoric. i think as an fbi employee, it s one thing if you re being targeted or harassed by the right wing media or by the president or former president. it s another thing entirely if you have to look over your shoulder and look for odd vehicles as you re driving into work every day. and that s something that s absolutely different now and it marks a troubling, emergent trend. peter, we are going to get to all that in just a bit, what you were just talking about. thank you so much for your expertise, juliet. our coverage of this stunning new reporting on the search at mar-a-lago, including a reported search for nuclear weapons documents continues in just a bit when i will talk to former director of national intelligence james clapper.