A revelation that FBI agents searched Donald Trump's Florida estate for classified information connected to nuclear weapons may explain the urgency of the unusual operation at the residence of an ex-President and escalates the gravity of his conflict with the Justice Department.
The narrative in The Washington Post might potentially undermine Republican senators, who criticized a search they believed was more typical of a dictatorial state before having all the facts.
In an unprecedented move, Attorney General Merrick Garland urged a judge on Thursday to unseal the search warrant and inventory of material seized from Trump's house. This raises the stakes of an already-escalating legal struggle.
The report in the Post investigation surfaced on yet another unusual day that resurrected the chaos and recriminations of Trump's presidency and cut contentious new political lines in advance of the former president's probable candidacy for the White House.
According to sources quoted by The Washington Post, federal investigators were searching Trump's resort for classified information connected to nuclear weapons, among other stuff.
The individuals did not disclose the documents in detail nor did they indicate if they pertained to U.S. or foreign nuclear weapons. CNN has not validated the information independently.
Nonetheless, if it comes out that Trump did steal such information from the White House, it would raise the question of why a former president would require such highly guarded secrets after leaving office.
Government authorities would be alarmed by the likelihood that such information would be stored in an unprotected facility where guests come and go and where it would be susceptible to penetration by a foreign intelligence service.
In the mounting legal battle over the search, Trump has until Friday at 3 p.m. ET to indicate whether he would challenge Garland's nomination.
In a statement published late Thursday on his Truth Social network, the former president stated that he will not oppose the release of data pertaining to the "un-American, unlawful, and unnecessary raid and break-in" at his residence.
He did not specify which records he would be willing to see made public. And the FBI search was permitted by a warrant issued by a judge who would have had to find probable cause that a crime had been committed.
"I think it is extremely unlikely that Donald Trump is going to prevail here," Nick Akerman, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told CNN's Erin Burnett.