After the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach residence at Mar-a-Lago, Trump and many of his supporters went to social media asking for answers and calling for the impeachment of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Even though the FBI and the Department of Justice refuse to comment on the actual reason for the raid at Trump’s home, many media outlets, as well as Eric Trump, the former president’s son, believe it was because of reports that Trump took classified documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, a possible violation of the Presidential Records Act. Sources say that over a dozen boxes of government documents might’ve been found improperly stored at the former president’s resort.
According to Newsweek’s sources, the raid happened when Trump was not at his Palm Beach residence to potentially avoid giving the president the chance of a photo op and drawing unnecessary attention to the raid. However, one of such sources, a senior Justice Department official that decide to remain anonymous, called it a “spectacular backfire” due to the backlash it sparked among the furious Trump supporters.
Still, according to Newsweek, other two senior government officials who knew about the raid, said someone told law enforcement that Donald Trump still had certain classified documents in his possessions, and reportedly guided the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents exactly to where the documents were being kept.
Earlier this year, the National Archives had already recovered 15 boxes of government documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and asked for the Department of Justice to investigate if any law was broken by Trump’s handling of such documents, as reported on Business Insider.
Citing anonymous sources close to former President Donald Trump, Rolling Stone reported that Trump appears to be concerned that his inner circle and other Republicans are using wires. The magazine also concluded that Trump is desperately trying to find out who is the person that tipped off the FBI about the whereabouts of the documents.
In the report, Rolling Stone said that one source told them Trump “has asked me and others, ‘Do you think our phones are tapped?’ Given the sheer volume of investigations going on into the (former) president, I do not think he’s assuming anything is outside the realm of possibility.”
The possibility of an informant within Trump’s close allies was enough to make his supporters, such as Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, rage during a live stream about an “FBI informant at Mar-a-Lago,” and make people close to Trump suspicious after the raid.
The reports from Newsweek match with the Journal’s. They said they had been in contact with anonymous sources involved in the matter, and that another person was in direct contact with the investigators and knew the exact location the classified documents were being stored at Mar-a-Lago. More documents than the 15 boxes already retrieved by the National Archives in February.
Former President Trump went to his social media network, Truth Social, and said he was “being attacked from all sides.”