FBI searches Mar-a-Lago, Trump says 'these are dark times for our nation'

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The FBI carried out a search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Trump confirmed the “raid” in a lengthy statement to CNN:

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Trump writes in part:

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. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by the 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. 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.

The difference of course is that the Watergate break-in was illegal and the FBI raid was carried out after receiving a search warrant, probably one reviewed by the Attorney General. Popehat has a thread up about how the FBI would have gotten the warrant:

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He notes that the agents who searched the premises will leave the warrant behind and from that we may be able to glean some information about what the goal is here.

The NY Times has a story up on what the raid was about:

The search, according to two people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, after he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents.

Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action being taken to retrieve them…

The search took place on Monday morning, a person familiar with it said, although Mr. Trump claimed agents were still there many hours later.

The search was at least in part for whether any records remained at the club, the person familiar with the search said.

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So it appears the purpose of the search was to grab records at Trump’s home. And Fox News is reporting the same thing.

That would all trace back to this story from February of this year:

The National Archives and Records Administration last month retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence because the material should have been turned over to the agency when he left the White House, Archives officials said Monday.

The recovery of the boxes from Trump’s Florida resort raises new concerns about his adherence to the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.

Trump advisers deny any nefarious intent and said the boxes contained mementos, gifts, letters from world leaders and other correspondence. The items included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump once described as “love letters,” as well as a letter left for Trump by President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the contents.

So apparently the DOJ is convinced the 15 boxes weren’t everything kept at Mar-a-Lago. What the contents of those documents might be remains to be seen.

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Trump does have a point about one thing that I think is basically correct. Democrats probably are worried about him running for office again. So this search may be totally legal but after having the FBI involved in the 2016 election, which Hillary complained about for months, having the FBI involved prior to the kickoff of the 2024 election seems like a dicey proposition.

Finally, here’s a CBS News report which also agrees this raid was about missing documents not about Jan. 6:

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Jazz Shaw 7:20 PM | March 18, 2024
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