plus, incredible new reporting on just how easy it is to infiltrate the resort home where donald trump stored an actual security secrets. and after an incredibly successful week, the biden administration warning republicans ahead of the midterms. they are about to find out! when all in starts right now. good evening from new york. i am chris hayes. we have the affidavit, filed by the fbi, in support of its search warrant of the ex presidents retirement home. now, there are a lot of really fascinating nuggets and revelations throughout, despite its quite heavy redactions. but one stands starkly out, as it did during the initial reveal of the search warrant itself. just the plain confirmation, black and white, quote, probable cause exists to believe that evidence contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed will be found at mar-a-lago. that is really the not of it, right there, isn t it? that s all with this has been about, the back and forth wi
that is really the not of it, right there, isn t it? that s all with this has been about, the back and forth with the national archives, starting last year. the visit from the doj back in spring. the subpoena, and of course, the rate itself. it was all building to this document, where all of a sudden, we swore under penalty of perjury that there was probable cause that someone at mar-a-lago almost certainly the former president himself was in unlawful possession of these documents. and that those documents were evidence of a crime. they requested permission to go there, and we covered the legal documents. and it seems like they just got that. we also learned from the affidavit about an incident back in may, when representatives from the national archives went through the 15 boxes they already recovered from mar-a-lago, before the search warrant. they found, quote, documents with classification markings in 14 of the 15 boxes, including, quote, 184 unique documents bearing classification
this is just the stuff, again, just the stuff the doj knew about, before the search warrant was released. it s managed to shake free from mar-a-lago. so, definitely, we heard a lot from this affidavit, but there s still a lot we don t know. as we said before, much of the documents were heavily redacted. the doj said that it was in part to protect, quote, and this is an interesting quote, a significant number of witnesses involved with the investigation. you gotta imagine that sentence alone will certainly fuel trump s paranoia, in what he has called rats in his inner circle. notably, the affidavit also does not mention so-called special access program, some of the most countries secretive information, which the national archives previously mentioned it found in those 15 boxes of documents. nor does it mention any nuclear documents which the washington post previously reported was one of the subjects in the search. experts say both of those topics would almost certainly be among those r
affidavit. now, taken all together, it s very obvious that things don t look good for donald trump. in fact, even, fox news pundits agree. it should be, frankly, in all due respect to the former president, one, one request. you took documents that under the presidential records act of 1978 should not have been taken from the white house. please give them all back. now, they obviously has been a number of times, and he gave 15 boxes back. why did he continue to hold on to almost a dozen more boxes is beyond me. yeah, carl wolf. he is a weird dude. there is still much to learn, but the main point here is unwavering. i mean, again, the government had probable cause that someone at mar-a-lago, almost certainly donald trump, committed a crime. not just any crime, according to the affidavit, a violation of the espionage act among others, specifically part e of the act of documents or information quote relating to
the national defense. willfully shares it with someone they shouldn t, quote, willfully within the material. again, fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the united states entitled to receive it. in other words, someone who intentionally retains important national defense documents, and fails to deliver them to the rightful hands. now, that language relating the national defense, kind of vague, but of course have standards to determine whether the material is serious enough to be a violation of the espionage act. one of those standard is a eccles legal secret. one way to determine if documents are closely held is if they are held classify. we know very little, though, about what exactly was recovered from the fbi search at mar-a-lago. the doj has revealed that many classified documents were found, including, top secret material. as the law for put it, quote, absent some evidence belying these labels, they are strong initiatives were closely. held closely held in the meaning