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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (NewsNation) — The Justice Department on Friday made public a heavily redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.

Despite being redacted, the affidavit contains additional details about an ongoing criminal investigation into classified documents being stored at Trump’s Palm Beach property after he left the White House. 

According to the 38-page affidavit, investigators believed additional classified documents were being held at Mar-a-Lago and that there was “probable cause” to believe that obstruction of evidence — somebody trying either to hide or destroy the documents — would be found.

The affidavit states that 14 of the 15 boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year contained documents with classification markings.

It details “184 unique docmnents [sic] bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 92 documents marked as SECRET, and 25 documents marked as TOP SECRET.”

Investigators believed documents were being kept in a storage room, the first lady’s residential suite, Pine Hall, the “45 Office” and other spaces on the premises not authorized for storage of classified information or national defense information.

According to the affidavit, several of the documents also contained what appeared to be the former president’s “handwritten notes.”

The Justice Department redacted, or blacked out, the information they want to keep secret to protect details about witnesses and the scope of the investigation.

It was expected that large chunks of the text would be redacted as the DOJ had tried to keep the affidavit sealed, saying the investigation is currently ongoing and releasing it could hamper investigators’ efforts.

View the redacted Mar-a-Lago search affidavit below:

Trump reacted to the release of the affidavit on his social media platform Truth Social, saying, “Affidavit heavily redacted!!! Nothing mentioned on “Nuclear,” a total public relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ.”

Trump again called the FBI search a “Break-In of my home” and was critical of the judge who signed off on the search warrant.

“Judge Bruce Reinhart should never have allowed the break-in of my home,” Trump said.

The affidavit shows that the DOJ’s investigation began after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requested help in recovering missing documents.

NARA first requested specific missing documents from Trump lawyers back in May of 2021.

NARA said it recovered more than 100 documents in January bearing classified markings, totaling more than 700 pages, from an initial batch of 15 boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, according to government correspondence with the Trump legal team newly made public.

What they ended up finding in those boxes were “newspapers, magazines, printed news articles, photos, miscellaneous print-outs, notes, presidential correspondence, personal and post-presidential records, and ‘a lot of classified records.'”

There was speculation that the DOJ may not have been intending to charge anybody with a crime and that they just wanted to get the documents back.

However, the affidavit states that the FBI was opening a criminal investigation to determine how these documents left the White House and who’s responsible.

In May of 2022, it became a criminal matter and the affidavit describes repeated attempts by the government to secure additional materials stored at Mar-a-Lago.

Documents already made public as part of the investigation show that the FBI retrieved from the property 11 sets of classified documents, including information marked at the top secret level.

It is not specifically known what the details of those documents are.

The Aug. 12 release of the search warrant in the investigation helped paint a picture of the possible crimes authorities believe Trump may have committed, including violating the Espionage Act.

Trump has urged the release of the full unredacted affidavit and has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government following what he calls an “un-American break-in.”

Trump and his legal team claim all of the documents were declassified and rightfully in his possession. The affidavit offers some insight into the claim.

It includes a letter from Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran in which he asserts that a president has “absolute authority” to declassify documents and that “presidential actions involving classified documents are not subject to criminal sanction.”

In the letter, Corcoran asks that the DOJ investigation into the “leader of the Republican Party” not “involve politics.”

He then says the boxes of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were “unknowingly included among the boxes brought to Mar-a-Lago by the movers.”

The release of the redacted affidavit comes as a new NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll found that most Americans approve of the FBI’s search of Trump’s estate. More than 93% of Democrats and 61% of independents surveyed said they somewhat or strongly approve of the FBI’s search of Trump’s Florida home, compared to just 30% of Republicans who said the same.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates