FBI raided Mar-a-Lago TODAY as part of investigation into ‘classified material Trump took after departing White House’: Ex-president confirms ‘my home was under siege by large group of agents who even broke into my safe’
- Donald Trump said his Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI
- ”These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,’ he said in shocking statement
- It is unclear what the agents were searching for
- Trump is involved in several legal matters
- The investigation is focused on material that Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House
- ‘They even broke into my safe!’ the former president said
Donald Trump said on Monday that his Mar-a-Lago home has been raided by the FBI, reportedly as part of an investigation the former president took classified documents with him when he left the White House.
Trump didn’t say specifically what the federal agents were looking for, just that his Florida home was ‘under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.’
‘They even broke into my safe!’ the former president complained.
The investigation is focused on material that Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, the New York Times reported.
The 15 boxes of material reportedly contained classified information.
‘These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,’ he said in shocking statement released on Monday night.
‘After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.’
Trump, in his lengthy statement blasting the raid, called it ‘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.
Donald Trump says his Mar-a-Lago home has been raided by the FBI
Trump’s Florida home: Mar-a-Lago, his private residence which doubles as a private club
‘Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries.
‘Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.
‘They even broke into my safe! What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.’
Trump did not appear to be Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, when the raid took place. He was in Texas over the weekend.
He usually spends August at his golf club in Bedminister, N.J. Photos posted to social media show him there on Sunday, posing with a newly-engaged couple.
The Justice Department has been investigating the boxes of records containing classified information that were taken to Mar-a-Lago.
In February, the National Archives and Records Administration asked DoJ to examine whether the former president violated federal law.
National Archives officials recovered 15 boxes of White House materials from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence – in apparent contravention of the federal records acts.
Trump insisted, at the time, that the transfer of boxes to the National Archives and Records Administration was done ‘openly and willingly’.
‘Following collaborative and respectful discussions, the National Archives and Records Administration openly and willingly arranged with President Trump for the transport of boxes that contained letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and various articles,’ he wrote in the third person.
He added: ‘Some of this information will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People.
In response to the seizure of materials, the House Oversight and Reform Committee opened a probe into Trump’s improperly removing or destroying White House documents.
‘Removing or concealing government records is a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison,’ the congressional letter to NARA Archivist David Ferriero notes.
Boxes were spotted just outside the West Wing in the days leading up to former President Donald Trump’s last day in office
People wait for a moving van as they move boxes out of the Eisenhower Executive Office building on January 14, 2021
Trump was known throughout his presidency to rip up pieces of paper, which is a violation of the Presidential Records Act.
The Presidential Records Act requires the White House to preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers the president touches and send them to the National Archives for safekeeping.
But Trump had the odd habit of ripping up papers when he’s done with them – what some aides call his unofficial ‘filing system.’
A group of staffers in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building was in charge of taping the records back together.
Fragments of paper collected from the Oval Office and the White House’s private residence were sent to records management office across the street from the White House to to be re-assembled with scotch tape and then sent on to the National Archives to be properly filed.
The former president also reported flushed records.
Maggie Haberman, a New York Times White House correspondent, claims in her upcoming book on the Trump presidency that Trump would give records the royal flush.
On Monday she claimed to have obtained pictures of presidential notes stuffed into the residence toilets from a former White House official who worked under the previous administration.
The images published by Axios on Monday purportedly show two sets of notes in the toilets, one of which is said to be located in a White House bathroom, and the other in an undisclosed location abroad during a foreign presidential trip – though the papers appeared to be handwritten rather than official documents.
One of the ripped up papers on top of a stack in the toilet shows what appears to be lawmakers names scrawled down in all capital letters in black sharpie.
Two names can be seen clearly on the paper – Rogers and Stefanik – although the rest of the torn up papers are mostly illegible.
It’s likely the names are referencing Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama and GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, a Trump defender.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich told Axios: ‘You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan.’
‘There’s enough people willing to fabricate stories like this in order to impress the media class — a media class who is willing to run with anything, as long as it anti-Trump,’ he added.
Maggie Haberman, a New York Times White House correspondent who closely followed Trump during his presidency for an upcoming book, claimed to have obtained pictures of handwritten notes stuffed into the bowls. She says this image is from a White House toilet
The images published by Axios purportedly show two sets of notes in the toilets, though they do not appear to be official documents. This image, Haberman claims, is from a toilet on an overseas trip
Trump is involved in several other legal matters, including the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
John Rowley, a former federal prosecutor with multiple Trump world clients is now representing the former president in talks with the Justice Department, Politico reported.
He’s representing Trump on matters of executive privilege issues related to the department’s ongoing probe of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Earlier this month, federal agents seized a phone from lawyer John Eastman, who helped aid Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Eastman pushed the conspiracy theory that then-Vice President Mike Pence could single-handedly reject electors.
He also reportedly asked Rudy Giuliani to be on Trump’s pardon list, according to testimony presented in a June hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection.
