FBI Raid on Trump House: Former President Donald Trump said FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago property on Monday and broke into his safe, possibly linked to a US Justice Department investigation into Trump’s removal of official presidential records at a Florida resort.
The unprecedented search of the former president’s home will mark a significant escalation in the records investigation, one of several investigations Trump is facing from his time in office and in private business.
Donald Trump’s Florida home ‘raided’
The Justice Department declined to comment on the raid, which Trump said in a statement involved “a large group of FBI agents.” Both the FBI’s headquarters in Washington and its regional office in Miami declined to comment.
The New York Times, citing two unidentified people familiar with the investigation, reported that the search was related to boxes of documents that Trump had brought with him from the White House to the Florida club.
Trump said the property is “currently under siege, raids and possession.” He did not say why the raid was conducted.
“After working and cooperating with relevant government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump said, adding that “they even broke my safe!”
Later on Monday, Trump did not mention the raid during a brief tele-rally for Liora Levy, whom he endorsed for the Republican nomination for US senator from Connecticut.
FBI Raid on Trump House in Florida:
CNN reported that Trump was not at the property at the time of the raid and that the FBI had executed a search warrant to enter the compound. CNN also said the search was linked to classified documents, citing unidentified sources.
Trump, who has made his club in Palm Beach his home since leaving the White House in January 2021, usually spends the summers at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, as Mar-a-Lago is usually at its peak during the summer. It closes in May.
The Justice Department launched an early-stage investigation into the removal of records from Trump’s Florida estate, a source familiar with the matter said in April.
The investigation comes after the US National Archives and Records Administration informed Congress in February that it had recovered nearly 15 boxes of White House documents, some of which contained classified material, from Trump’s Florida home.
The US House of Representatives Oversight Committee announced at the time that it was expanding an investigation into Trump’s actions and asked the archives to turn over additional information.
Trump had previously confirmed that he had agreed to return certain record archives, calling it “a normal and routine procedure.”
Other investigations into Trump
In addition to the presidential record case, Trump is under investigation on several other fronts, including the January 6, 2021 congressional investigation, the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters and allegations that Trump tried to influence Georgia’s 2020 election results. tried.
In addition, the US attorney in Washington, DC, is investigating a plan by Trump aides to submit slates of fake voters in a failed bid to reverse the 2020 presidential election.
Led by U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves in Washington, D.C., who was sworn in last fall, the Justice Department has begun issuing grand jury summons to battlefield voters, including some voters who voted for Trump’s election. The certifier has signed a forged certificate.
According to multiple subpoenas seen by Reuters, prosecutors are seeking communications with voters and federal employees, “any member, employee or agent of Donald J. Trump” as well as certain individuals in Trump’s inner circle, including attorneys. John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani.
In an interview with NBC News in July, Attorney General Merrick Garland was asked whether the Justice Department would indict Trump over the events of January 6 if the evidence supported such action.
Garland replied, “We want to hold everyone who was criminally responsible for the events around January 6th, for any attempt to interfere with the legitimate transfer of power from one administration to another. That’s what we do. We don’t. Don’t pay attention to other issues regarding it.”
In Georgia, a special grand jury was selected in May to consider evidence in a Georgia prosecutor’s investigation into Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the state’s 2020 election results.
The investigation is partly focused on a phone call that Trump made on January 2, 2021, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican.
According to an audio recording obtained by the Washington Post, Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to reverse Trump’s electoral loss.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization has inflated real estate values. Trump’s two adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, have testified in the investigation, and Trump has agreed to testify.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated James is a Democrat.
