FBI feared Pennsylvania would seize fabled Civil War gold and legislative staffer plotted to get loot, affidavit says

An FBI agent applied for a federal warrant in 2018 to seize a fabled cache of U.S. government gold he said was "stolen during the Civil War" and hidden in a Pennsylvania cave, saying the state might take the gold for itself if the feds asked for permission to excavate the loot, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.

The newly unsealed affidavit confirms previous reporting by The Associated Press  that the government had been looking for a legendary cache of gold at the site, which federal authorities had long refused to confirm. In any case, the FBI said, the dig came up empty. The AP and The Philadelphia Inquirer petitioned a federal judge to unseal the case. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request, and the judge agreed, paving the way for Thursday's release of documents.