Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after making a video call to the troops stationed worldwide at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Florida, on December 24, 2019.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images
The FBI executed a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, he said in a statement.
Trump slammed the bureau and said “this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
The DOJ is probing Trump’s actions related to Jan. 6, and the National Archives also asked the DOJ to investigate if Trump broke the law by taking government records with him to Mar-a-Lago.
The FBI executed a search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said in a statement Monday.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” the statement said. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
The search was first reported by Florida Politics and later confirmed by Trump.
It’s unclear what the warrant was related to. The Justice Department is currently scrutinizing Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US election. The National Archives also asked the department in February to investigate if Trump broke the law when he took official government records with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
The former president accused the bureau of prosecutorial misconduct in his statement and suggested the raid was part of a politically motivated plot to stop him from running for president in 2024.
“They even broke into my safe!” he said.
Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor, told Insider in an email that the FBI in its bid to get a search warrant would have had to satisfy a federal judge that there was probable cause a specific crime had taken place at Mar-a-Lago.
“Search warrants usually come toward the end of an investigation because they require a showing of probable cause and because they tend to tip off the suspect that they are under investigation,” said McQuade, a former Obama-era US attorney.
Monday’s raid on Trump’s home came as his lawyers warn him that federal investigators probing events related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot are closing in on his inner circle. According to CNN, Trump’s attorneys are also in talks with the Justice Department about whether the former president can assert executive privilege with respect to conversations he had with advisors when he was in the White House.
Trump’s lawyers have reportedly cautioned him against communicating with former aides ensnared in Congress’ January 6 investigation and who could become involved in the Justice Department’s criminal probe. They’ve expressed particular concern about former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who they believe could be a crucial fact witness in the department’s investigation, CNN said.
The Justice Department, meanwhile, has been preparing for a court battle over executive privilege and is said to be preparing a strategy to force Trump’s close advisors to testify about their conversations with him around January 6.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.