The FBI searched former President Donald Trump's Florida home to look for classified documents relating to nuclear weapons, according to a source who spoke with The Washington Post.
Monday's search of Mar-a-Lago revolves around the handling of government records and whether Trump has been honest with officials about what he took from the White House.
Republicans have cried foul. Trump called the search an "assault" and complained that the authorities had broken into a safe. He also characterized it as a "weaponization of the justice system" and an effort to prevent him from running for president again in 2024.
The Justice Department on Thursday asked a federal court to unseal the warrant the FBI used to search the Mar-a-Lago estate, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, acknowledging extraordinary public interest in the case about classified records.
The request is striking because such documents traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation. But the Justice Department appeared to recognize that its silence since the search had created a vacuum for bitter verbal attacks by Trump and his allies, and that the public was entitled to the FBI's side about what prompted Monday's action at the former president's home.
"The public's clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing," said a motion filed in federal court in Florida on Thursday.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.