Donald Trump maintains it is a ‘hoax’ that FBI investigators were hunting for nuclear weapons-related materials when they searched Mar-a-Lago on Monday, but a fresh report alleges dozens of boxes containing top secret information were discovered dispersed across the property.
On Friday morning, the former president turned to Truth Social to relate the fresh charges to ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ impeachment, and the Steele Dossier, and to insinuate that law enforcement may have ‘placed’ evidence.
According to a News Nation article, investigators uncovered ‘boxes everywhere,’ including some files classified high secrets, in two locations, including his’storage room by a pool’ and his ‘personal office above a ballroom.’
The report did not indicate which ballroom or pool the documents were discovered in, but it did mention that some of the papers included Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information, the highest level of security.
Trump’s statement condemning agents for excluding his attorneys from seeing the search came just hours after he claimed he supported a Florida judge unsealing the search warrant that led to Monday’s raid on his estate.
His attorneys have until 3 p.m. Friday to file an objection to the publication, although they are unlikely to do so.
‘The nuclear weapons threat is a hoax, just as Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax, two impeachments were a hoax, the Mueller probe was a hoax, and much more,’ Trump tweeted on Friday.
‘Same sleazy individuals involved,’ he continued. Why wouldn’t the FBI allow an investigation of Mar-a-Lago locations with our lawyer or others present? They were made to wait outdoors in the heat, wouldn’t allow them approach near, and said “ABSOLUTELY NOT.” Anyone interested in plant information? It’s like a Christofer (sic) Steele Dossier!
Trump also blasted Republican ‘impeachers’ and ‘crazy’ Liz Cheney ahead of her Wyoming race on Tuesday night, labeling the Inflation Reduction Act “the greatest green new phony deal package in history.”
The new statement on the searches was sparked by a Washington Post report published Thursday night, which said that the search at his residence was based on nuclear weapons-related papers.
The FBI did recover boxes from Mar-a-Lago, but their contents remain unknown. The unsealing of the search warrant will provide additional information, but if the files are tagged top secret or classified, the information will be withheld.
Late Thursday, Trump indicated he would not contest the warrant’s publication, after Attorney General Merrick Garland said he would request that the document be released.
According to Garland, Trump’s lawyers have their own copy of the warrant as well as the receipt for the materials confiscated in Monday’s raid – records that are typically delivered to the subject of a court-authorized search.
If Trump had the order and receipt, as Garland claims, it’s unclear why he wouldn’t just disclose them himself, as he has the legal authority to do.
Trump stated his position in a post on his Truth Social network. ‘Not only will I not oppose the release of information pertaining to the un-American, unlawful, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my residence in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago,’ he said, ‘but I will go a step further by ENCOURAGING the quick release of those materials.’
Trump went on to say that he supported the warrant’s publication despite the fact that it was “drafted by extreme left Democrats and potential future political opponents who have a strong and vested interest in destroying me.”
The statement came far before of the 3 p.m. Friday deadline that Trump’s legal team would have faced if they opted to oppose the DOJ move to unseal the warrant, and a decision on the motion might come before the weekend.
Garland stood in front of cameras earlier Thursday to justify the search and admit that he had ordered the operation at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
Since Monday, the fallout from the extraordinary search of a former president’s mansion has captivated the political world, and the Justice Department has been under growing pressure to justify its action.
Garland said he couldn’t go into specifics about what spurred the search, but sources informed the Washington Post it had something to do with nuclear weapons.
They did not disclose whether it was related to the US nuclear program or another country’s.
The Justice Department petitioned a court to unseal the search warrant only moments before Garland’s short comments.
He said that the DOJ requested that the search warrant be made public “in view of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances, and the great public interest in this case.”
Garland would not take questions, but he went out of his way to condemn the recent verbal assaults and threats against law officers in the aftermath of the ‘raid.’
‘I’d want to respond to recent unjustified assaults on the professionalism of FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors. ‘I will not remain quiet when their integrity is wrongly challenged,’ said a Biden official.
‘The FBI and Justice Department men and women are committed, patriotic public servants. They defend the American people from violent crime, terrorism, and other dangers to their safety every day, all while protecting our civil rights. They do it at tremendous personal cost and danger to themselves.’
His last-minute visit comes after the former president said federal authorities ‘raided’ his residence, breaking a padlocked door and seizing papers requested by the National Archives.
‘The department does not take such a decision lightly,’ Garland added, perhaps in response to Trump’s backers’ charges of political persecution.
‘Whenever feasible, explore less invasive measures as an alternative to a search, and narrowly scope any search that is done.’
Trump was given until 3 p.m. on Friday to reply to the DOJ’s demand to unseal the warrant.
In his own statement after Garland’s appearance, Trump claimed his attorneys were “totally cooperating” with the probe and accused investigators of “getting well ahead of themselves” – but he made no mention of the warrant.
‘My lawyers and representatives were completely collaborating, and very excellent ties had been formed.’ If we had it, the government could have had everything they wanted,’ Trump said on his app Truth Social. ‘They wanted us to install an extra lock to a certain spot – DONE! Everything was wonderful, better than most former Presidents’, until, out of nowhere and without notice, Mar-a-Lago was attacked at 6:30 a.m. by a VERY huge number of agents, including a “safecracker.” They got a little ahead of themselves. Crazy!’
Trump has been enraged since announcing the search on Monday night, calling it “sad times for our country.”
‘The department did not make any public pronouncements on the day of the search,’ Garland said on Thursday. That evening, the former president officially announced the search, as is his prerogative.’ His decision to unseal the order comes after Trump’s son Eric said the FBI declined to provide a copy to his father’s team, while the ex-lawyer president’s Christina Bobb disputed that by claiming the document was in her hands.
Democrats have also increased their demands for Trump to make the warrant public.
The smartphone of Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, one of Trump’s top loyalists in Congress who reportedly supported his plans to steal the 2020 election, was confiscated by FBI investigators a day after the Mar-a-Lago ‘attack.’
According to the Washington Post, the seizure was tied to another Justice Department investigation into the former president, including a ‘fake-elections plot’ that he and his cronies are suspected of supporting in order to remain in office.
The raid on Trump’s residence comes months after the National Archives requested that the Justice Department launch an inquiry into the Republican’s handling of confidential documents.
In January, officials from the National Archives travelled to Mar-a-Lago to recover 15 boxes of data that were supposed to be given over when Trump left office. Some have now been proven to have been categorized.
Garland’s appearance on Thursday came on the heels of a shocking new CNN story revealing that federal agents confiscated records from Mar-a-Lago in June and issued a grand jury subpoena while on the premises.
However, his days-long quiet on the explosive raid has enraged Republicans, with some even advocating for his impeachment.
‘No one could have predicted that we, or one political party, would be utilizing the FBI to target their political opponents,’ Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said Fox News on Wednesday.
‘This is something that will demand more examination.’ And I wouldn’t be shocked if the probe uncovers abuses of authority, which might lead to the attorney general’s impeachment.’
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley tweeted that ‘Garland must resign or be impeached,’ and that FBI Director Chris Wray should be fired entirely.
Despite the January collection and June DOJ visit, CNN claimed on Thursday that Monday’s raid was predicated on ‘witness reports’ of sensitive materials inside Mar-a-Lago.
