The FBI returned boxes of materials to former President Donald Trump that he had taken to his Mar-a-Lago estate upon leaving the White House in 2021, as announced by the administration on Friday. Trump had faced criminal charges for retaining national defense documents and allegedly conspiring to hide them from federal authorities. FBI agents discovered over 100 classified documents at his estate in 2022, leading to the investigation. However, these charges were dropped due to the Justice Department’s policy not to prosecute a sitting president.

It remains unclear whether the returned boxes contained classified documents, with no clarification from the White House on their contents. Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, stated that the FBI was returning the president’s property taken during “unlawful and illegal raids,” and the boxes were loaded onto Air Force One for Trump’s flight to Florida. Trump mentioned in a Truth Social post that the materials in the boxes would eventually be part of the Trump Presidential Library.

In response to these developments, Trump expressed his belief that justice prevailed and reiterated his innocence. Special counsel Jack Smith, who initiated the charges against Trump, resigned from the Department of Justice after Trump assumed office. The article also credits Bart Jansen, Joey Garrison, and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy for their contributions to the report.