Donald Trump: FBI conducting raid of Mar-a-Lago home in Florida

Former President Donald Trump talked politics in a phone call to a rally for a Republican senatorial candidate in Connecticut Monday evening.

Trump did not mention the raid on his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, by the FBI.

In a lengthy statement Monday, Trump said that the FBI was conducting a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and asserted that agents had broken open a safe.

The circumstances of the search were not immediately clear, though the Justice Department has been actively investigating the discovery of classified information in boxes of records that were taken to Trump's Florida residence after he left the White House.

The action marks a dramatic escalation in law enforcement scrutiny of Trump and comes as he has been laying the groundwork to make another bid for president.

"After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate," Trump said in his statement.

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Justice Department spokesperson Dena Iverson declined to comment on the search, including about whether Attorney General Merrick Garland had personally authorized the search.

The discovery of classified information at Mar-a-Lago was referred to the Justice Department by the National Archives and Records Administration, which said it had found classified material in 15 boxes at the residence.

Federal law bars the removal of classified documents to unauthorized locations, though it is possible that Trump could try to argue that, as president, he was the ultimate declassification authority.