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During the Mar-a-Lago raid, the FBI looked through Melania's closet and spent hours in Trump's office

Monday morning, FBI agents raided the former First Family's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. They went through Melania Trump's closet and spent several hours going through Donald Trump's private office, breaking open his safe and going through his drawers.

The Post has found out that the search warrant the FBI used to get into the palatial Palm Beach property was only about presidential records and proof that classified information was being kept there.

A person close to the former president was worried that FBI agents or DOJ lawyers doing the search could have "planted stuff" because they wouldn't let Trump's lawyers into the 128-room building to watch the operation, which took more than nine hours.

Over 30 undercover agents from the Southern District of Florida and the FBI's Washington Field Office raided the Trump family's 3,000-square-foot private quarters. They also searched a separate office and safe, as well as a locked basement storage room where 15 cardboard boxes of White House materials were kept.

The feds came at 9 a.m. and stayed until 6:30 p.m.

An eyewitness to the raid said that all of the boxes were taken by federal agents on Monday. The FBI did not give an itemized list of what was taken, so it is not known if anything else was taken.

Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in NYC Tuesday night.
Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in NYC Tuesday night.
Gregory P. Mango
Trump Supporters are seen at the gates of Former President Trump's Florida Residents as the FBI executed a search warrant Monday at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents on August 8, 2022 in West Palm Beach Florida.
The Justice Department and FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home Monday.
Larry Marano
A police car is seen outside former US President Donald Trump's residence in Mar-A-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida on August 8, 2022.
The feds reportedly stayed at the residence from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images
Former US President Donald Trump's residence in Mar-A-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida on August 9, 2022
FBI agents even scoured Melania Trump’s wardrobe during the raid.
GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images

The boxes have papers and mementos from Trump's time as president. They are said to include letters from Barack Obama and Kim Jong Un, as well as other letters from world leaders.

A legal source said that the General Services Administration had packed up the boxes and sent them to Mar-a-Lago before Trump left office in January 2020.

Sources say that Trump's lawyers, led by Evan Corcoran, have been working with the government to get the documents back to the National Archives and Records Administration.

An interior view of the living room at 'Mar a Lago' owned by businessman Donald Trump circa 2000 in Palm Beach, Florida.
An interior view of the living room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home circa 2000.
Marc Serota/Getty images
An interior view of the bedroom at 'Mar a Lago' owned by businessman Donald Trump circa 2000 in Palm Beach, Florida.
The agents scoured the home’s entire 3,000-square-foot perimeter.
Marc Serota/Getty images
The main living room area of the historic Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach can be seen.
An eyewitness described the demeanor of the agents as “arrogant.”
Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA Wire

In May, Corcoran let FBI agents into a storage room at Mar-a-Lago that didn't have any windows. The agents spent several hours looking through the boxes. Someone who was there says that Trump stopped by the basement at one point to say hello.

Since then, the Trump family has moved to his golf estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, for the summer.

Mar-a-Lago is closed for the season, so only a small number of people, like groundskeepers, were there when the raid happened on Monday.

People think that heavily armed US Secret Service (USSS) agents with M4 carbines stood at the front gates and let people into the 20-acre private country club. The former president's lawyers didn't know about the raid until an hour later.

A retired USSS agent with a high rank said that the FBI would not have carried out a warrant without first telling the Secret Service.

"USSS legal counsel would have probably told [them] to look at a copy of the warrant and then back off."

Once inside the private quarters, which were air-conditioned and made of white marble, agents spread out to search every room. Trump's lawyers told the shocked staff to unlock doors and let the FBI into every room, including the luxurious Versailles Master Bedroom that Melania renovated two years ago.

Agents, including a professional safe cracker, went to a different part of the huge Spanish stucco building from 1924 to search Trump's office and safe.

One eyewitness said that the three DOJ lawyers who went with the FBI were "arrogant," and that they kept telling Trump's people, "We have full access to everything. We're free to go anywhere."

Even though it was 91 degrees outside on Monday, Trump's lawyers were not allowed to stay in the lobby or watch the search in any way. Instead, they were left out in the hot sun near a parking lot.

The government told Trump's people to turn off the security cameras, but they didn't.

Trump has ripped the raid of Mar-a-Lago as a political ploy.
Trump has ripped the raid of Mar-a-Lago as a political ploy.
REUTERS
A member of the Secret Service is seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on August 9, 2022.
A member of the Secret Service is seen in front of Trump’s Tuesday.
GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images
alm Beach police officers keep watch near the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago on August 8, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump’s lawyers were reportedly forbidden to observe the raid as agents took boxes from the home.
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images

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