FBI 'stole' passports during Mar-a-Lago search: Trump

WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump has accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of stealing his passports during recent search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

"Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else," Trump wrote on Monday on the Truth Social network he co-founded, dpa news agency reported.

"This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!"

It remains unclear why Trump only spoke out about this a week after the search of his property in the US state of Florida.

The raid followed suspicions that Trump may have violated the Espionage Act and other laws by taking classified documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021.

A court in Florida published the list of seized items as well as the search warrant last Friday at the request of US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The list of seized items includes documents and several boxes. Passports are not explicitly listed there.

Fact checkers at the Washington Post newspaper say Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements in his four-year term from 2017.

Trump and his Republican supporters say the raid was orchestrated by Democrats to deflect from President Joe Biden's unpopularity. Trump is weighing another presidential bid in 2024.