Former US President Donald Trump has said he will not oppose the release of the warrant that let FBI agents search his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this week.

In a statement, Mr Trump said he was encouraging its “immediate release” – but repeated his claim the search was unnecessary and politically motivated.

The US Department of Justice has made a rare request to a Florida court to unseal the warrant.

If granted, it would mean the documents are made available to the public.

And it could confirm the reason for Monday’s search of Mr Trump’s Florida home – something that the justice department has not yet revealed.

The FBI search is believed to be connected to an investigation into whether the former president removed classified records and sensitive material from the White House.

According to the Washington Post,citing anonymous sources, documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents were looking for at Mar-a-Lago.

The sources did not tell the newspaper whether the information involved US weapons or some other nation’s.

Mr Trump had a deadline of 15:00 EST (19:00 GMT) on Friday afternoon to object to the unsealing – but it is not clear what his statement now means for when the documents could be published.

“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents,” the statement read.

He said this was despite them being “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 six years”.