The Department of Justice removed classified documents from Trump’s Florida home while executing a search warrant involving possible violations of the Espionage Act and other crimes

Joshua Skule, a former FBI executive assistant director of intelligence, told CNN there is a hierarchy of security levels when it comes to how documents are classified by the government, with one of the highest classification being “top secret/SCI.” SCI stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information.

The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents from its search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this week, including some materials marked with that “top secret/SCI” distinction, according to documents from the search warrant that were released Friday.

Skule said top secret/SCI is one of the nation’s most highly sensitive material.

Other classification levels include “secret” — meaning the information may cause “serious damage to national security” — and “confidential,” both which gauge national security concern, retired Lt. General Mark Hertling told CNN, adding classifications are defined by legal definitions.

He said “top secret/SCI” is restricted to not only people who have top secret clearance, but also a “need-to-know of certain details.”

“I personally could have a top secret clearance, could go in and read any top secret document, but as soon as one of them says SCI, that means there’s something special about that,” Herling said, adding access to that information would only be given to people who need to know the “methods and people involved.”

Federal agents seized just one set of “top secret/SCI” documents, according to the search warrant receipt. Agents took four sets of “top secret” documents, three sets of “secret” documents, and three sets of “confidential” documents. 

The warrant receipt didn’t detail what these classified documents were about.

CNN’s Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed reporting to this post.

One of the newly unsealed documents is a search warrant “receipt” listing the items that the FBI collected from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

That document reveals FBI agents removed more than 20 boxes from Trump’s resort and residence in Palm Beach, as well as binders of photos, sets of classified government materials and at least one handwritten note.

According to the search warrant receipt, federal agents seized:

The warrant receipt didn’t detail what such classified documents were about.

Among the items taken:

Trump pardoned Stone before leaving office, shielding him from a three-year prison term. It’s unclear how the Stone-related document seized during the search is tied to the broader criminal probe into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified materials.

Read more about the search warrant here.

The search warrant for former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property identifies three federal crimes the Justice Department is looking at as part of its investigation.

The first one is espionage and part of the Espionage Act, according to analysis by CNN’s legal analyst Elie Honig. He said the espionage piece of the warrant applies to someone who gathered, lost or destroyed defense information.

But the most important part for this to stick legally is the idea of intent, he said, adding that the person had to have the “intent or reason to believe, or reckless of the likelihood that, that information could be used to injure the national interests of the United States.”

The second crime in the warrant is obstruction, Honig said, defining it as essentially an obstruction of justice or “destroying, moving, concealing a document in order to interfere with some sort of ongoing investigation,” he said.

The destruction of a federal document is the third crime in the warrant, Honig said, which the document identifies as criminal handling of government records.

Keep in mind: The prosecutors who wrote the search warrant only needed to have probable cause to include the crimes. This means they realized a certain document was missing, brought that information to a judge, and the judge agreed there was probable cause to include it in the warrant, Honig said.

“It is a lower standard of proof. It’s probable cause, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” Honig said. This means if there is ultimately no proof on any of the criminal accusations, the prosecutors “don’t have to and won’t charge it,” he said.

Additionally, “if prosecutors find evidence sufficient to charge other crimes, they can do that too. This is a starting point. This is for the search warrant only,” he added.

Watch more in the video below:

The warrant receipts were signed by former President Trump attorney Christina Bobb, who has since spoken out about her presence at Mar-a-Lago during the search.

Bobb has complained about the fact that she and other Trump lawyers weren’t permitted to observe the search while it happened, but it is not standard FBI procedure to allow observers during a search.

She signed two “receipts for property,” which lists the items that the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago. Bobb signed these receipts at 6:19 p.m., when the federal agents were wrapping up their all-day search.

Bobb is a well-known promoter of pro-Trump conspiracy theories, including during her previous position at OAN, the far-right TV channel. CNN has previously reported that Bobb played a leading role in the Trump’s campaign efforts in December 2020 to put forward slates of fake GOP electors in seven states.

The judge authorized the FBI to search what the bureau called the “45 Office” as well as “all other rooms or areas” at Mar-a-Lago that were available to former President Trump and his staff for storing boxes and documents.  

The FBI’s warrant application to the judge specifically said that federal agents would avoid areas being rented or used by third parties, “such as Mar-a-Lago members” and “private guest suites.” Trump owns the sprawling estate, and it is his primary residence as well as a members-only club and resort. 

“It is described as a mansion with approximately 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, on a 17-acre estate,” FBI agents told the judge in their application when describing the Mar-a-Lago property.

The search warrant was signed by federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Friday, Aug. 5, at 12:12 p.m. ET, according to the document. 

FBI agents waited until Monday this week to execute the search. 

And on Friday, Reinhart approved the unsealing of the warrant at the Justice Department’s request and after Trump’s lawyers agreed to the release. 

CNN has reported that there has been an uptick in violent rhetoric against Reinhart on the pro-Trump internet circles. Amid these threats, the official website for the Southern District of Florida removed Reinhart’s biography page, his contact information and office address, CNN previously reported. 

CNN previously did not name Reinhart because of the security concerns, but is doing so now because his name is now part of the public court record.

The US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Friday unsealed the search warrant and property receipt from the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach earlier this week.

Read the unsealed search warrant here.

One of the newly unsealed documents is a search warrant “receipt” listing the items that the FBI collected from Mar-a-Lago. 

That document reveals that FBI agents removed more than 20 boxes from former President Donald Trump’s resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, as well as binders of photos, sets of classified government materials and at least one handwritten note. 

Federal agents seized just one set of “top secret/SCI” documents, according to the search warrant receipt. Agents took four sets of “top secret” documents, three sets of “secret” documents, and three sets of “confidential” documents. 

The warrant receipt didn’t detail what these classified documents were about.

Among the items is a document about pardoning Roger Stone, a staunch Trump ally who was convicted in 2019 of lying to Congress during its probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The Stone-related material taken from Mar-a-Lago was listed in the warrant receipt as “Executive Grant of Clemency re: Roger Jason Stone, Jr.”

Trump pardoned Stone before leaving office, shielding Stone from a three-year prison term. It’s unclear how the Stone-related document seized during the search is tied to the broader criminal probe into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified materials. 

A spokesperson for Stone told CNN: “Mr. Stone has no knowledge as to the facts surrounding his clemency documents appearing on the inventory of items seized from former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.”

During the search, FBI agents also recovered material about the “President of France,” according to the warrant receipt. 

CNN’s Adam Levine contributed reporting to this post.