That document, which the FBI submitted so it could obtain a warrant to search Trump’s winter home, provides new details about the volume and highly classified nature of what was recovered from Mar-a-Lago in January. It shows how Justice Department officials had raised concerns months before the investigation that state secrets were being illegally kept, and before they returned in August with a court-approved warrant and found even more classified records at the property. All of this raises questions as to whether a crime was committed and, if so, by whom. Answers may not come quickly. A department official this month described the investigation as in its early stages, indicating there is more work to be done as investigators review the documents they removed and continue to interview witnesses. At the very least, the investigation presents a political distraction for Trump as he lays the groundwork for a potential presidential bid. Then there is the obvious legal risk. A look at what follows: WHAT IS THE FBI INVESTIGATING? None of the administration’s legal filings released so far have singled out Trump — or anyone else — as a potential target of the investigation. But the warrant and accompanying affidavit make clear that the investigation is active and criminal in nature. The department investigates potential violations of several laws, including an Espionage Act that governs the collection, transmission or loss of national defense information. The other laws deal with the mutilation and removal of records as well as the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations. The investigation began quietly with a referral from the National Archives and Records Administration, which retrieved 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago in January — 14 of which were found to contain classified information. In all, the FBI affidavit said, officials found 184 classified documents, including some that suggested they contained information from highly sensitive human sources. Several had what appeared to be Trump’s handwritten notes, the affidavit says. The FBI has spent months investigating how the documents got from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, whether there are other classified files on the property. The office also sought to identify the person or persons “who may have removed or retained classified information without authorization and/or in an unauthorized location,” the affidavit states. So far, the FBI has interviewed a “significant number of civilian witnesses,” according to a Justice Department release unsealed Friday, and is seeking “further information” from them. The FBI has not identified all of the “potential federal criminals” nor has it located all of the evidence relevant to its investigation.

WILL ANYONE CHARGE? It’s hard to say at this point. To obtain a search warrant, federal agents must convince a judge that there is probable cause to believe there is evidence of a crime at the location they want to search. However, search warrants are not an automatic precursor to a criminal prosecution and certainly do not signal that charges are imminent. The laws at issue are felonies that carry prison sentences. One law, which includes the mismanagement of national defense information, was used in recent years to prosecute a government contractor who stockpiled reams of sensitive files at his Maryland home (he was sentenced to nine years in prison) and a National Security Agency employee who transferred classified information to someone who was not authorized to receive it (case pending). Attorney General Merrick Garland has not disclosed his opinion on the matter. Asked last month about Trump as part of a separate investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, he replied that “no person is above the law.”

WHAT DID TRUMP DO? Trump, angered by the records search, issued a statement Friday saying he and his team have cooperated with the Justice Department and that its representatives “GIVE THEM A LOT.” This contradicts the Trump team’s portrayal in the affidavit and the fact that the FBI investigation took place despite warnings months earlier that the documents were not being stored properly and that there was no secure location for them anywhere at Mar-a-Lago. A letter released as part of the affidavit lays out the arguments Trump’s legal team plans to advance as the investigation moves forward. The May 25 letter from attorney M. Evan Corcoran to Jay Bratt, the Justice Department’s counterintelligence chief, lays out a strong, expansive view of the executive branch. Corcoran argued that it was a “ground-breaking principle” that a president has absolute power to declassify documents — though he doesn’t actually say that Trump did. He also said the primary law governing the mishandling of classified information does not apply to the president. The statute he cited in the letter was not among those the affidavit suggests the Justice Department is basing its investigation on. And in a footnote in the affidavit, an FBI agent noted that the National Defense Information Act does not use the term classified information.

WHAT DID THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SAY? The White House has been tight-lipped about the investigation, with officials repeatedly saying they will let the Justice Department do its job. Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby, in response to a question this week about whether the administration would do a damage assessment on the sensitive secrets at Mar-a-Lago, said he did not want to preempt the FBI. President Joe Biden appeared on Friday to scoff at the idea that Trump could simply declassify all the documents in his possession, telling reporters: “I just want you to know that I have declassified everything in the world. I’m president, I can—come on!” He then said he would “let the Justice Department take care of it.”

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