you got that sense talking to secretary mcdonough just how hefty this is, this task that is ahead of him but he says the va is ready to do it. i m glad you shined a light on the work that is done here. it s wonderful that it s happened, frustrating it took so long. certainly is. new day continues right now. good morning to viewers here in the u.s. and around the world, it s thursday, august 11th. i m brianna keilar with john berman. there are some new revelations about the fbi s unprecedented search of mar-a-lago. the wall street journal reports sometime after trump first turned over 15 boxes of material to the national archives last winter, quote, someone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club. sources tell cnn the fbi tried to avoid a spectacle at mar-a-lago, agents arriving in the late morning, they were not wearing fbi logo jackets that you commonly have seen at searches. remember
meeting in june, and this subpoena essentially prompted this meeting where we know that the trump lawyers gave a little tour to some of the prosecutors and investigators doing this investigation, showed them where these documents were being held, and at the end of that meeting they left with classified documents, documents that were national security information. that s the reason why that meeting occurred. what it tells us is that these conversations, these discussions that were on going between trump lawyers and the justice department turned contentious much earlier, much, much earlier than the search that occurred on monday. we re also learning that part of all of this involves a witness, at least one witness. do we know, was that witness saying there s still documents you missed on june 8th? this witness told them there were definitely documents being held at mar-a-lago that the fbi needed to get, obviously wanted to get. this was information that included classified
law. but what caused this search now? what triggered the apparent approval of attorney general merrick garland and fbi correct director christopher ray, what can we read into this? searching the home of a former president for possible crime would require approval by the justice department and a federal judge would have to agree probable cause has been committed. we have not heard from the doj, that s not unusual, of course, the news is drawing a surge of criticism from republican backers with house minority leader kevin mccarthy even vowing revenge against attorney general merrick garland. cnn s leilayla santiago begins coverage. live outside of mar-a-lago with the latest. leyla. reporter: brianna, if you think about it, it was this time yesterday that fbi agents were going into mar-a-lago. and what exactly they re looking for, what exactly came out of the home. here s what we know so far. we know according to sources familiar with the investigation this was related to pr
donald trump s palm beach club according to the wall street journal. the journal says that that s what prompted the search this week of mar-a-lago. cnn hasn t confirmed the journal s report, but we previously reported that there were months of discussions between the trump lawyers and justice department prosecutors and that in june justice and fbi officials paid a visit to mar-a-lago to discuss possible classified documents that were still being stored there despite the government s view that they belong at the national archives. meanwhile, inside the justice department there is frustration that the department has so far said nothing about the search. while trump and his allies have portrayed it as a siege and suggested without providing any proof that the fbi may have planted evidence. attorney general merrick garland has said that the department doesn t comment on ongoing investigations in part to protect the rights of people under investigation and who haven t been charged. it s a
former president, he repeated that. obviously, there s questions about this. you re already seeing how trump and his allies are framing it. mccarthy saying he wants to potentially interview and speak to attorney general garland about this. republicans are right now expected to take the majority in the house come november and launch a series of investigations. so, i don t think the scrutiny what happened here and what led to this is going to go away. of course, the justice department doesn t comment on their investigation so they haven t shed new light on this, what they can share, obviously. preet, we now realize as this was happening in mar-a-lago, it was happening as we were starting to see the first pictures of toilets it that trump had ripped up documents in or flushed them. or attempted to, right, to destroy documents? that jump over a subpoena, to a search warrant, how much does knowing that he has a propensity to not just rip up documents, but to actually try to dispose of the