Former President Donald Trump says the raid at the Mar-A-Lago property consisted of “prosecutorial misconduct” and was done during “dark times for our nation.” This raid was reportedly part of an ongoing investigation to confirm whether or not the former president did actually take classified records from the White House to his Florida home. As part of a lengthy statement by Trump, he compared the work being done by the FBI to “prosecutorial misconduct,” describing it as an “unannounced raid.”
At the time of the raid, the former president was not in his Palm Beach estate, but in New York. Demonstrators waving American flags and carrying signs in support of former President Donald Trump lined up the bridge leading to his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago, where FBI agents conducted a raid. Many of Trump’s allies called this raid “an unprecedented, politically-motivated attack.”
In his statement, Trump wrote that “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,” saying “nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.” “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” said Trump in his statement as reported by CBS News.
This month’s search is part of a probe that is being dragged for months into why and how classified documents ended up in over a dozen boxes found at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. This happens at the same time as a grand jury investigation into efforts to overturn the presidential election results of 2020, which can represent potential legal peril for Donald Trump.
Many Republican senators went to social media to denounce the raid and show their support for Trump. One of these was Florida US Senator Marco Rubio, who wrote on his Twitter that the Biden Administration was “playing with fire.” “Biden is playing with fire by using a document dispute to get the @TheJusticeDept to persecute a likely future election opponent. Because one day what goes around is going to come around. And then we become Nicaragua under Ortega,” said Rubio on Twitter. Florida Senator Rick Scott also criticized the search. “All related records must be made available to Congress NOW and every Republican must demand accountability. Since President Biden claims he didn’t know, he needs to come out today and demand that all facts be presented to the American people,” said Scott in his lengthy statement.
Eddie Mac, one of the demonstrators outside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, said the former president did a great job while in office. “This isn’t about democrats or republicans, white, black, green or blue. We had the best economy in the history of this nation when trump was president,” said Mac. Another demonstrator, Adriane Schochet, said she was upset this was happening. “We have to save our rights, our freedom, our country, and I’m here to demonstrate that holding the United States American flag,” she added.
Dena Iverson, Justice Department spokesperson, declined to comment on the raid or whether or not Attorney General Merrick Garland had personally authorized it.
