On Thursday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed that he had personally authorized the search warrant the FBI used to raid Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this week, which was slammed by the 45th US president as “prosecutorial misconduct” and “the weaponization of the Justice System.”

Former President Donald Trump has stated that he would not oppose the release of documents pertaining to Monday’s search of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents.

He added that apart from not opposing the unsealing of a search warrant for an FBI raid on the Mar-a-Lago residence, he was “going a step further by encouraging the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me, much as they have done for the last 6 years […].”

The remarks came after US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who also heads the US Department of Justice (DOJ), told reporters that the DOJ had filed a motion in the Southern District of Florida to unseal the search warrant and property receipt used in the Monday raid. He added that he could give no further information on the matter.

In the Thursday filing, the DOJ argued that the warrant should be unsealed because of “significant interest and attention from news media organizations and other entities” following Trump’s own voluntary release of information confirming the search.

Garland, for his part, confirmed he personally approved the search warrant, adding that the DOJ “does not take such decisions lightly.”