The FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago house in Florida in search of privileged papers he is suspected of stealing from the White House when he left office.
Trump, who was in New York at the time of the search, tweeted late Monday,’my magnificent property, Mar-A-Lago… is presently under siege, invaded, and occupied by a big number of FBI agents.’
The ex-President said that operatives investigated his office and even opened his safe in an effort by the Biden administration to destroy his “greatest danger” ahead of the 2024 race, according to son Eric.
However, a spokeswoman for the Biden White House stated they had no previous information of the operation and just learned about it via Twitter.
The FBI has not commented on the operation, but sources close to the investigation say it is related to official papers that Trump is suspected of unlawfully taking with him when he left the White House.
Trump’s attorneys handed up 15 boxes of records that were supposed to be transferred to the National Archive after his tenure expired but ended up at Mar-a-Lago instead.
The Presidential Records Act requires that any papers relating to the president’s responsibilities be turned up to the National Archive after his tenure is ended.
At the time, Trump’s attorneys justified the violation as an error, claiming that his crew had packed in a ‘hurry’ because he was busy challenging the outcome of the 2020 election and did not want to seem to be surrendering to Biden by cleaning his office.
The National Archive later acknowledged that secret papers had been discovered among the boxes collected, and – perhaps tellingly – said that Trump’s staff was ‘continue to explore’ for other data.
Among the files turned over are letters between Trump and North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, as well as a note left for Trump by departing President Barack Obama.
Though the raid itself is not proof of wrongdoing, the FBI will have required to persuade a court that there is “probable cause” to think a crime was committed in order to get a warrant to enter.
Top agency and Justice Department officials would almost definitely have had to approve the action as well.
Investigations into the documents are only one of many investigations against Trump’s presidency, including his reluctance to concede the 2020 election to Biden and the January 6 assault of the Capitol Building by supporters certain the election had been stolen.
The Justice Department is launching a criminal investigation into the events on January 6, has charged hundreds of individuals with breaking into the Capitol that day, and is reportedly investigating Trump’s role.
Meanwhile, the House Select Committee on Intelligence is holding a series of hearings in the run-up to January 6, and high-ranking officials of the Trump administration are being interviewed about efforts to alter the election outcome.
Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former Secretary of State and an ally throughout his presidency, is scheduled to appear this week with Douglas Mastriano, the Republican contender for governor of Pennsylvania who helped lead attempts to overturn that state’s election outcome.
The state of Georgia is also pursuing a second grand jury inquiry into Trump’s attempts to protest the election decision there, and two other investigations into Trump’s finances are underway in New York.
Eric Trump, who was seen at Trump Tower on Monday, said he was the one who received the call about the raid and informed his father about it. ‘I was the man who received the call this morning, and I contacted my father and informed him, and I was involved all day,’ he told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity. ‘Welcome to the 2020s in politics.’
‘To have 30 FBI agents – really more than that – come on Mar-a-Lago with no warning, go through the gates, start ransacking an office, ransacking a closet – you know, they smashed into a safe.’ He didn’t even have any valuables in the safe. Give me a break,’ I mean.
He blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for the raid.
‘This was not provided by a local FBI field office in Palm Beach, Florida. Do you know where this originated from? This emanated from one spot and one building: Washington, D.C.’s White House. They want to go after the man they see as his biggest danger, Biden’s greatest threat,’ Eric Trump added.
Biden’s White House was unaware of the situation. Senior White House officials learned about it via Twitter.
On Monday night, Donald Trump was seen waving and thumbs up to supporters gathering outside Trump Tower.
CNN said that the search was concentrated on the part of Mar-a-Lago where Trump’s offices and personal quarters are located, and that Trump’s personal attorney Christinia Bobb was present throughout the search.
Moreover, at a meeting earlier this year at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s attorney showed federal investigators papers maintained on site, including some labeled classified, according to the network. Lara Trump said Fox News, ‘see, as anybody who’s been around him a lot knows, my father-in-law likes to keep stuff like newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, pictures, papers that he had every permission… to remove from the White House.’
She described the raid as an effort to harm him, citing fears that her father-in-law may ‘announce any day that he’s running for president in 2024.’
The raid comes as Donald Trump considers running for president again, and his activities during the 2020 election, in which he attempted to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, are being investigated by senators on Capitol Hill.
It started on Monday morning and lasted many hours. A government raid on the house of a former commander in chief is quite rare.
‘These are grave times for our country, as my magnificent property in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-A-Lago, is presently under siege, raided, and seized by a huge number of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever occurred to a US President before,’ Trump stated in a stunning statement delivered Monday night.
‘After working with and collaborating with the right government entities, this unexpected raid on my house was not necessary nor acceptable.’
Trump called the raid ‘prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.’
The Justice Department would to clarify whether Attorney General Merrick Garland personally ordered the search, although a raid on a former president is exceedingly uncommon without the AG’s consent.
According to NBC News, the FBI provided US Secret Service officials at Mar-a-Lago early warning and they complied by allowing them access to the property. The Secret Service agents, however, did not participate in the inquiry or search.
This means that the FBI didn’t have to break into the house or smash down any doors.
A search warrant does not imply that criminal charges are imminent or even anticipated, but it must be court-authorized.
Garland and his Department of Justice are also under intense political pressure, from Democrats who want the former president charged to Republicans who would dismiss any investigation as election-year politics.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened Garland with retaliation. He promised to look into the raid if Republicans take control of the House in November, which is likely.
‘Attorney General Garland, save your records and clear your schedule,’ he said in a statement issued late Monday night. Trump cast himself as a victim of hidden government forces in his remarks. President Trump selected FBI Director Christopher Wray to his job.
On Monday, Trump lamented that “such an atrocity could only take place in shattered, Third-World countries.” Unfortunately, America has now become one of those countries, corrupt to unprecedented levels.’
‘They even cracked into my safe!’ What is this different from Watergate, when agents broke into the Democratic National Committee? Democrats stormed into the residence of the 45th President of the United States in reverse,’ he added.
Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and house, at the time of the raid. On Monday, the former president was in New York City. He offered a thumbs up as he exited Trump Tower that evening, just after announcing the raid.
He normally spends August at his Bedminister, New Jersey, golf club. Social media photos show him there on Sunday, posing with a recently engaged couple.
The search was thought to be related to a Department of Justice investigation into the boxes of data containing sensitive material that were brought to Mar-a-Lago.
The National Archives and Records Administration requested the Department of Justice in February to investigate whether the former president broke federal law. There are several laws controlling classified material, including one that makes it a criminal to remove such data and keep them in an unauthorized place, punishable by up to five years in jail.
In mid-January, National Archives employees collected 15 boxes of White House records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Among the materials Trump was required to return were ‘beautiful letters’ from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a handwritten message placed in the Oval Office for his successor by previous President Barack Obama.
Some Republicans instantly condemned the raid.
‘Using government authority to prosecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from third-world Marxist dictatorships, but never before in America,’ tweeted Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio. Trump stated at the time that the boxes were sent to the National Archives and Records Administration “openly and freely.”
He wrote in the third person, ‘Following collaborative and polite negotiations, the National Archives and Documents Administration freely and gladly negotiated with President Trump for the delivery of boxes including letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and numerous items.’
‘Some of this material will be presented in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library eventually for the public to observe my Administration’s amazing achievements for the American People,’ he said.
In reaction to the material seizure, the House Oversight and Reform Committee launched an investigation into Trump’s unlawful removal or destruction of White House papers.
The congressional letter to NARA Archivist David Ferriero said that’removing or hiding government documents is a criminal violation punishable by up to three years in jail.’
Throughout his administration, Trump was also known to shred up bits of paper, which is a violation of the Presidential Records Act.
According to the Presidential Records Act, the White House must maintain any memoranda, letters, emails, and materials touched by the president and submit them to the National Archives for safety.
However, Trump has an unusual tendency of shredding up documents after he’s through with them, which some associates refer to as his unofficial ‘filing system.’
Staffers at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building were in charge of retaping the documents.
Paper fragments retrieved from the Oval Office and the White House’s private home were transferred to the White House’s records management office across the street to be reassembled using scotch tape and then delivered to the National Archives to be properly filed.
The previous president also claimed that documents had been purged.
In her forthcoming book about Trump’s administration, Maggie Haberman, a New York Times White House reporter, asserts that Trump would give records the royal flush.
She said on Monday that she acquired photos of presidential notes placed into the house toilets from a former White House worker who served under the previous administration.
The photographs released on Monday by Axios supposedly show two sets of notes in the toilets, one in a White House restroom and the other at an unidentified location overseas on a foreign presidential trip – however the papers seemed to be handwritten rather than official paperwork.
One of the shredded up papers on top of a stack in the toilet looks to have politicians’ names inscribed in black sharpie in all capital letters.
The names Rogers and Stefanik can be read clearly on the document, but the remainder of the ripped up sheets are mainly unintelligible.
The names are most likely a reference to Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama and GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, a Trump supporter.
‘You have to be fairly desperate to sell books if photographs of paper in a toilet bowl are part of your advertising campaign,’ Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich told Axios.
‘There are enough individuals eager to invent things like this to satisfy the media class — a media class prepared to go with anything anti-Trump,’ he continued. Trump is also embroiled in a number of other legal issues, including the Justice Department’s investigation into attempts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election and the January 6th insurgency.
A district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is looking into whether Trump and his close friends attempted to meddle in the state’s election, which Biden won.
Various criminal and civil investigations at the state level in New York are also looking at Trump.