A new report reveals some details about the FBI’s unprecedented raid on Donald Trump’s Florida residence. Mar-a-Lago was seized by federal agents on Monday. They spent nearly 10 hours searching the property and seizing many boxes of documents.
Later it was discovered that the documents were part of an ongoing dispute with the National Archives. According to reports, the FBI conducted an armed raid on Donald Trump’s house, not due to any grand conspiracy about January 6th but because there was a dispute over the Presidential Records Act. The documents found in the raid included important documents such as a napkin for dinner and a letter from Kim Jung Un.
Newsweek reports that an FBI informant laid the foundation for the raid. He even told federal agents where the boxes were.
Two senior officials from the government told Newsweek that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was largely based on confidential information from an FBI human source. This source was able to identify which classified documents President Trump was still hiding, and even where they were located.
According to the officials, who had direct knowledge of the FBI’s deliberations, and who were allowed anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, the raid on Donald Trump’s Florida home was timed so that it would occur while the former president was not there.
This is an interesting development and will undoubtedly set off a furious hunt within Trump’s orbit. Although he was betrayed by someone, it is important to note that there has not been any actual wrongdoing. The fact that the FBI and the “informant”, believed that the president was in possession of classified information does not mean that he was not entitled to it. The president has the power to declassify documents in any way they like. Trump can also declassify these documents before he leaves office. On Tuesday, the lawyer for the president claimed that she had seen the documents seized and that they weren’t what the National Archives were searching for.
This brings us to the bigger question: What are we doing?
Why would the FBI use armed agents to raid the home of a former President over a possible violation of the Presidential Records Act? This is a strange move given the past precedent and should cause you to question the motives behind it all. Although most people can guess with some degree of certainty, it would be great to have more concrete information.
A Newsweek article also revealed that Trump was denied a photo-op by the FBI.
The FBI’s Washington and Miami decision-makers thought that depriving the former president of a photo opportunity, or a platform to grandstand (or attempt to thwart a raid), would reduce the visibility of the event. One source, a senior Justice Department official, said one of the sources. He is a 30-year FBI veteran.
The attempt to keep the raid low-key was futile. Instead, it provoked a furious reaction from GOP leaders as well as Trump supporters. The Justice official said, “What a stunning backfire.”
The official said that although there is much speculation that this may be political persecution, it is actually the best and worst of bureaucracy in practice. They wanted to emphasize the fact that this was routine law enforcement, without any political overtones. But they got exactly the opposite.
If this were not political, why was the FBI concerned that Trump would be allowed to grandstand? This would seem irrelevant to an agency that is purely doing its job. The notion that the FBI only wanted the documents back is false. To get documents back from a former president, you don’t raid him. This could have been done with one agent, a call, and a court order. The FBI wanted to create a scene and that’s exactly how they did it. This was not a routine act that went sour.
Referring to the FBI informant, many won’t want to hear the story, but that is part of Donald Trump’s problem. His greatest weakness is what makes him so appealing as a politician. Yes, he is a fighter who will talk with brutal abandonment about issues that many Republicans won’t. If he feels threatened, he’ll throw his closest friends under the bus.
This creates distrust and the environment is so dangerous that he has hired many people to do his bidding. It’s clear that Trump’s attempt to “drain the swamp”, in his second term, will not succeed. To accomplish this task, one will need a team of loyal aides with deep knowledge of the bureaucracies. I don’t think the former president can do that.
