What was in the FBI’s inventory of items seized from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022?

1. 33 boxes, thousands of government records, hundreds of classified pages

The property receipt and later unsealed inventory list the seizure of 33 boxes and containers from an office and a storage room at Mar‑a‑Lago, and other reporting and later DOJ summaries place the total recovered government documents from the broader review at over 13,000, with roughly 337 pages bearing classification markings overall and about 102 of those classified pages recovered specifically in the August search ^{[1] [2] [4]}.

2. Classification levels: Top Secret/SCI, Secret, Confidential documented in the haul

The inventory and photo evidence note records bearing “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information” markings as well as “Secret” and “Confidential” designations, and contemporaneous reporting quantified a subset recovered in August as including several top‑secret items and dozens more at lower classification levels — for example one contemporaneous account counted seven top‑secret, 54 secret and 31 confidential documents in the items seized during the August search ^{[3] [5] [6]}.

3. Empty folders and labels that raise questions about missing pages

A striking feature of the detailed list was the number of empty folders and sleeves marked with classification banners or instructions to “return to staff secretary/military aide”; contemporaneous tallies reported about 90 such empty folders among the seized materials, a detail prosecutors cited as significant because it suggested some classified records the folders originally held were no longer present ^{[7] [3]}.

4. Classified material commingled with magazines, gifts, clothing and other personal effects

The inventory repeatedly shows classified and unclassified government papers were stored alongside newspapers and magazines, gift items, clothing and other personal effects — a pattern the Justice Department used to emphasize there was no secure government facility at the location and to bolster its concern about improper storage of sensitive national‑security material ^{[3] [1] [8]}.

5. Location details and oddities noted in reporting and court filings

Inventory descriptions and reporting indicate documents were found in the former president’s office and a storage room and that some seized boxes had contents described down to lists of magazines and clippings; press accounts also reported some items were found beyond a locked storage room, with media citing agents finding materials in spaces such as a ballroom, bathroom and bedroom in surrounding coverage of the case ^{[1] [5] [9]}.

6. Legal and investigative significance tied to the inventory, and limits of what the list shows

Prosecutors treated the inventory as proof that classified records remained at the property after prior returns to the National Archives and as part of an obstruction inquiry; defense teams later complained about chain‑of‑custody and sequencing issues in the boxes, which became salient in litigation over a special master and in later criminal charging documents ^{[2] [10]}. The inventory itself is descriptive and does not explain why folders were empty or whether pages once present are elsewhere, and reporting notes those are questions the inventory alone cannot answer ^{[1] [7]}.

7. What the inventory did not — and cannot — fully show

The unsealed list gives granular descriptions of containers and item types but stops short of reproducing the contents of the documents; it shows the presence of classified markings, empty folders, and commingling with personal effects, yet the inventory alone neither proves how documents were moved over time nor establishes the provenance or final disposition of particular pages without the underlying document content and investigative context ^{[1] [11]}.