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FOR THE FIRST TIME in the nation’s history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the home of a former president in the midst of a confusing investigation at the home of former President Trump in Mar-a-Lago. It was Trump himself who in a statement reported that his Palm Beach home was being raided by a “large group of FBI agents.”
“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,” Trump said in a statement via TRUTH social.
The former Republican president denounced that the DOJ is being used as a weapon against him to prevent him from running again for the presidency in 2024.
In addition to Trump’s harsh claim, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, also denounced the event as “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the regime’s political opponents.”
A CBS News source claimed that during the raid they removed several boxes and did not need to break doors in the president’s house.
What was the FBI reportedly looking for?
Although the details of the FBI raid are still unknown, local reports claim that the investigation is related to the alleged possibility that Trump may have transferred classified and sensitive material from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence. However, at the moment these are presumptions and nothing has been confirmed.
The former president’s lawyer, Christina Bobb, told NBC News that some documents were seized during the search.
According to CBS News, the execution of the search warrant was related to an investigation into the handling of National Archives documents.
This was corroborated by Eric Trump, the president’s second son, who told Fox News that the FBI search warrant for the Mar-a-Lago residence was related to an investigation into the former president’s handling of National Archives documents, as U.S. presidents are required by law to transfer all of their letters, work papers and emails to the National Archives.
A close source told Fox News that FBI agents went to Mar-a-Lago and searched every office and safe, and took documents and boxes without searching them on the property. They took boxes and documents to review them later.
Who is the embattled judge who signed off the raid?
Judge Bruce Reinhart approved the warrant that allowed FBI agents to raid Mar-a-Lago on Monday night, according to the New York Post.
Reinhart was appointed magistrate judge in 2018 after spending a decade in private law practice. In November of that year, The Miami Herald reported that the judge had represented several members of Epstein’s staff related to the investigation into allegations of sex trafficking.
The newspaper reported that Judge Reinhart left the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Florida on New Year’s Day 2008 and began representing Epstein’s employees the next day.
GOP rallies behind Trump to denounce the FBI, DOJ
Many Republicans followed Trump’s lead and demanded explanations from the Justice Department claiming that the former president was the victim of a political vendetta.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy immediately vowed to investigate Attorney General Merrick Garland if Republicans win the House in the November midterm elections.
Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), who is running for office this fall, tweeted, “Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships. But never before in America.”
The FBI raid was unprecedented for America,but familiar to those in Florida who fled nations where political opposition was criminalized
If voters put us back in the majority we better have the guts to subpoena the records & make those who authorized this testify under oath pic.twitter.com/dcLTr01T6H
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 9, 2022
Meanwhile, Florida Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, tweeted, “We need answers NOW. The FBI must explain what they were doing today & why.”
“I share the deep concern of millions of Americans over the unprecedented search of the personal residence of President Trump.” Mike Pence tweeted, Trump’s former vice president. “No former President of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history,” he added.
Intelligence specialists and former FBI officials have stated that the decision to raid the home of a former president is “extremely serious” and sets a milestone in the history of the country.
This is a developing story.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo