Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Home Raided by FBI

 

Via Fox News.

Former President Trump on Monday said that his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida is “under siege” by a “large group” of FBI agents.

“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,” Trump said. “It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.”

“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before,” Trump said, alleging that the FBI agents broke into his safe.

“What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee?” he said. “Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.”

Multiple sources tell Fox News the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago is related to the materials Trump allegedly brought to his private residence after his presidency concluded. That matter was referred to the Justice Department by the National Archives and Records Administration, which said it found classified material in 15 boxes at the residence.

Per the CNN article, he was not home at the time.

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  1. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Their endgame is the imprisonment or death of President Trump, and anyone close to him.  And they will continue until they achieve their ends, no matter how long it takes or how many others they have to take down.  Arm yourselves, friends.  We are next.

    • #91
  2. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Polling for the Democrats in midterm congressional races must be worse than I thought…

    I don’t think this will make it better.

    The appropriate response is the one Kevin McCarthy promised: when Republicans take back the house, scour the institutions, beginning with the DoJ.

    • #92
  3. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    And this one just came in.  

    • #93
  4. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Polling for the Democrats in midterm congressional races must be worse than I thought…

    I don’t think this will make it better.

    The appropriate response is the one Kevin McCarthy promised: when Republicans take back the house, scour the institutions, beginning with the DoJ.

    Such a cute idea. 

    • #94
  5. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    This is just weird. This all feels off-kilter. So the FBI is making a raid now, because they have (per CNN) an unofficial policy of not doing big moves 90 days before an election, and they want to get the classified documents for THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, because Trump was known, supposedly, to tear things up and flush them down the toilet. 

    Well. I can believe that the National Archives wants everything; it’s in the username. I can believe that Trump would tear up stuff he didn’t want preserved, unless you think that he was personally horrified by the idea that this *stupid piece of paper from some idiot that said something stupid* simply must be preserved to maintain the total integrity of the historical record. What, tear up this printed copy of a Tweet I had in my drafts folder? Perish the thought. I know I’m supposed to get all watergatey when I hear “classified,” but A) we learned how many levels of “classified” exist, and B) how it doesn’t matter if the sender is the Secretary of State using a private server, because “classified” might apply to her yoga appointments. 

    I can believe he had some stuff in his personal safe, but if was proof of some perfidy, and he’s also accused of ripping things up, well, are we supposed to believe he took the transcripts of his conversation with Putin in which he promised to toe the Russian line, and kept it? Is the stuff in the safe proof of his misdeeds, or someone else’s? Or, was this an excuse to hoover up everything in the safe and sort it out later?

    If the “classified documents” line was a cover story, and they get something else out of this they really wanted  – business or tax shenanigans, none of which would surprise me [New York real estate magnate played with the rules? Shocked Picachu face] – we’ll be expected to wave away the whole fruit-of-the-poisoned-tree thing, or accept that the DoJ actually had a different objective, and lied to us for our own benefit because it would just look bad to conduct a raid without a reason. Now we can tell you what we were after, and aren’t you glad we made sure no one was above the law?

    This is a hyuge line to cross, and to do it without something big behind it seems immensely foolhardy. I’d say the downsides outweigh the positives, but the FBI can probably count on a friendly media and anti-Trump cohort to shrug if nothing comes of it. Best case scenario: someone in Atlantic mag or the WaPo ediorial section, two years hence, en route to condemning the DeSantis administration’s investigation of Biden-China financial connections, admits that the Trump raid “opened the door” to these things, BUT THAT DOESN’T  MAKE IT RIGHT

    It will be a dangerous precedent when it’s applied to a D.

    • #95
  6. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    I hit return too soon on my previous comment. But it’s videos like this that make my eyes roll out of my head whenever I read a comment like; you just wait. When we take the house we’ll give them what for!!

    • #96
  7. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    These are the norms that David French and Bill Kristol yearned for when they pushed for Burisma Joe Biden 

    Everything that they stated about Trump could be said about Biden.

     

    • #97
  8. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):

    These are the norms that David French and Bill Kristol yearned for when they pushed for Burisma Joe Biden

    Everything that they stated about Trump could be said about Biden.

     

    Some Norms to cheer you up:

    For all the worry of Trump violating Norms. (poor Norm) Democrats seem to be the only ones actually doing it.

    • #98
  9. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Johnathon Turley interview on FOX with Jesse Watters: Special Counsel?

     

    • #99
  10. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Django (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):

    Richard Easton (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Rodin (View Comment):

    cdor (View Comment):

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    They must actually believe he can win in 2024.

    If they didn’t want him to run for president in 2024, this is the worst move they could’ve made. If Anything Would Drive President Trump into declaring his candidacy, this is the act that would do it.

    And get a lot of people that would prefer a different standard bearer, like DeSantis, to rally to Trump for 2024.

    Has DeSantis commented?

    He’s condemned it.

    Here’s the thing, if Trump is *prevented* from running in 2024, then DeSantis or whoever condemns this in the strongest fashion, and is intent on gutting the FBI and rescinding the Patriot Act, etc. will win in a landslide.

    It will be the biggest backlash in American history. If Trump is ‘off the table’ they can’t continue this charade. DeSantis or some other candidate will emerge and it will be difficult to use the same rationale.

    So they need Trump as a boogeyman. So if they are smart (and I’m not sure they are) they are trying to wound Trump but not kill him and then employ their extra-legal tactics with the rationale that he’s “unfit” as justification for shenanigans.

    Abolish the FBI and start from scratch.

    Or we can just have a civil war…

    Either way…

    Just had an odd thought: Those men and women in the military and law enforcement are supposed to defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. Will they? Will they be on the side of election integrity? I’m not sure anymore.

    They are on the side of following orders and their pensions. 

    • #100
  11. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    • #101
  12. She Member
    She
    @She

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Polling for the Democrats in midterm congressional races must be worse than I thought…

    Or perhaps they’re just trying to make sure the media is back onside.  After all…

    When you’ve lost Brian Stelter…..

    Perhaps the most powerful man in America right now is CNN’s new boss, Chris Licht.

     

    • #102
  13. Gazpacho Grande' Coolidge
    Gazpacho Grande'
    @ChrisCampion

    It’s not just the “raid” itself (and let’s pause for a moment, for those American Heroes ™ bravely “raiding” an unoccupied home to collect pieces of paper), it’s timing, and purpose.  If all the rumors about Trump taking papers out were true, did they just find out about it?  What super-lawyer-science was just applied where something could be written up and charged?  And then an emergency raid had to be ordered, in order to protect us all from the crimes of paper that might be in a safe.

    I’m curious as to what other crimes the hundreds of people involved in this could have helped prevent or prosecute.  What’s clear is that a path to promotion or compensation runs through politicians, so the things you do in support of their goals (even if not outwardly stated) move you up the ladder.

    And don’t worry, treasonous bots.  If Lois Lerner taught us anything, it’s that using the power of the gov’t to attack political enemies is OK, now that the lessons of Watergate have been consigned to the ashbin of history.

    Like our country, it seems.

    • #103
  14. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Gazpacho Grande' (View Comment):

    It’s not just the “raid” itself (and let’s pause for a moment, for those American Heroes ™ bravely “raiding” an unoccupied home to collect pieces of paper), it’s timing, and purpose. If all the rumors about Trump taking papers out were true, did they just find out about it? What super-lawyer-science was just applied where something could be written up and charged? And then an emergency raid had to be ordered, in order to protect us all from the crimes of paper that might be in a safe.

    I’m curious as to what other crimes the hundreds of people involved in this could have helped prevent or prosecute. What’s clear is that a path to promotion or compensation runs through politicians, so the things you do in support of their goals (even if not outwardly stated) move you up the ladder.

    And don’t worry, treasonous bots. If Lois Lerner taught us anything, it’s that using the power of the gov’t to attack political enemies is OK, now that the lessons of Watergate have been consigned to the ashbin of history.

    Like our country, it seems.

    Psst, I heard that they got a dossier … from Christopher Steele.

    • #104
  15. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):

    Richard Easton (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Rodin (View Comment):

    cdor (View Comment):

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    They must actually believe he can win in 2024.

    If they didn’t want him to run for president in 2024, this is the worst move they could’ve made. If Anything Would Drive President Trump into declaring his candidacy, this is the act that would do it.

    And get a lot of people that would prefer a different standard bearer, like DeSantis, to rally to Trump for 2024.

    Has DeSantis commented?

    He’s condemned it.

    Here’s the thing, if Trump is *prevented* from running in 2024, then DeSantis or whoever condemns this in the strongest fashion, and is intent on gutting the FBI and rescinding the Patriot Act, etc. will win in a landslide.

    It will be the biggest backlash in American history. If Trump is ‘off the table’ they can’t continue this charade. DeSantis or some other candidate will emerge and it will be difficult to use the same rationale.

    So they need Trump as a boogeyman. So if they are smart (and I’m not sure they are) they are trying to wound Trump but not kill him and then employ their extra-legal tactics with the rationale that he’s “unfit” as justification for shenanigans.

    Abolish the FBI and start from scratch.

    Or we can just have a civil war…

    Either way…

    Just had an odd thought: Those men and women in the military and law enforcement are supposed to defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. Will they? Will they be on the side of election integrity? I’m not sure anymore.

    They are on the side of following orders and their pensions.

    and just think – Schumer et al just created an Army of IRS agents to do their bidding 

     

    • #105
  16. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Django (View Comment):

    Local news is bringing up the old Maggot Haberman story about Trump flushing documents down the toilet. Come on; it’s hard enough to flush toilet paper anymore with those new low-flow things. Well, if did flush them, why are they searching for them at Mar-a-lago? So far, I’ve heard nothing that made sense.

    When I try to examine this with my analytical lawyer mind, I just don’t understand the reasoning for a raid.

    Only in the fevered imaginations of his opponents does Mr. Trump disobey court orders. He actually has a pretty solid history of compliance. So if there’s a dispute about the status of some of the documents he has, he would almost certainly comply with a court instruction to preserve them.  No raid necessary.

    And the raid just accentuates the impression many people have that this is all political. 

    • #106
  17. Justin Other Lawyer Coolidge
    Justin Other Lawyer
    @DouglasMyers

    jmelvin (View Comment):

    I wouldn’t say that the FBI had no business being there, but they best have their ducks in a row and clearly verified before pulling this off. If not, these are the kinds of stunts that can break up countries and get lots of people killed.

    This is where I am. I can envision a circumstance where this is justified. 

    I just hope this was that circumstance. 

    But I have this eerie suspicion that it wasn’t that circumstance. 

    There had better be rock solid need for the raid. 

    • #107
  18. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Local news is bringing up the old Maggot Haberman story about Trump flushing documents down the toilet. Come on; it’s hard enough to flush toilet paper anymore with those new low-flow things. Well, if did flush them, why are they searching for them at Mar-a-lago? So far, I’ve heard nothing that made sense.

    When I try to examine this with my analytical lawyer mind, I just don’t understand the reasoning for a raid.

    Only in the fevered imaginations of his opponents does Mr. Trump disobey court orders. He actually has a pretty solid history of compliance. So if there’s a dispute about the status of some of the documents he has, he would almost certainly comply with a court instruction to preserve them. No raid necessary.

    And the raid just accentuates the impression many people have that this is all political.

    Impression?! After all the democrat party has subjected this President to on a personal basis? This is another one of those “conspiracy (sic) theories” that turn out to be a prophetic truth. 

    This is ALL political.

    This just proves that the prior lawlessness within the DOJ/FBI has only gotten worse with the ‘new’ team.

    • #108
  19. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Justin Other Lawyer (View Comment):

    jmelvin (View Comment):

    I wouldn’t say that the FBI had no business being there, but they best have their ducks in a row and clearly verified before pulling this off. If not, these are the kinds of stunts that can break up countries and get lots of people killed.

    This is where I am. I can envision a circumstance where this is justified.

    I just hope this was that circumstance.

    But I have this eerie suspicion that it wasn’t that circumstance.

    There had better be rock solid need for the raid.

    Trump must be provided with the warrant.

    He should release it ASAP.

    • #109
  20. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    You know, I really don’t think this is a strong condemnation of the “Regime”.  Generally speaking about one of many escalations involving unnamed weaponized federal agencies is not the clear condemnation of the Biden administration, the FBI and the DOJ.  It sounds a little reserved.

    And if he’d used his official twitter account instead of his personal, I would think he is willing to take a stand as the chief executive of Florida’sgovernment.

    • #110
  21. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Eustace C. Scrubb (View Comment):

    Just here basking in the NORMS…

    • #111
  22. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Justin Other Lawyer (View Comment):

    jmelvin (View Comment):

    I wouldn’t say that the FBI had no business being there, but they best have their ducks in a row and clearly verified before pulling this off. If not, these are the kinds of stunts that can break up countries and get lots of people killed.

    This is where I am. I can envision a circumstance where this is justified.

    I just hope this was that circumstance.

    But I have this eerie suspicion that it wasn’t that circumstance.

    There had better be rock solid need for the raid.

    And think deeply about what you should do when you realize that the “rock solid” reason will not be forthcoming. How will you regard your government, then? What will you urge your fellow citizens to do? How safe will you personally feel?

    We are all J6ers now. Except that it 8/8/22 when the realization hit home; when we found out that our government considers our voting as an act of domestic terror. 

    • #112
  23. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Annefy (View Comment):

    As early as last week, I was calling it 50/50 that there would even be an election in November 2022.

    As of today, 60/40, no election/election. If anything, that’s optimistic.

    It’s not a big deal, but I think there will be an election — and it will be about as real as a Broadway play, but with more stagehands running around with their hands full behind the scrim.

    • #113
  24. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    They crippled the Trump administration by starting investigations before he was inaugurated, this is quite the same thing , every attempt he might make to defend himself can be characterized as ‘obstruction’, we all know he should have and could have fired Comey , MaCabe and the rest but we also know that would have led to ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ and ‘walls closing in’ headlines. Same here every attempt at defense or offense will be called obstruction of FBI , Justice etc. Hamstrung. 

    • #114
  25. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Annefy (View Comment):

    I hit return too soon on my previous comment. But it’s videos like this that make my eyes roll out of my head whenever I read a comment like; you just wait. When we take the house we’ll give them what for!!

    Yeah, anyone who is strategizing about the mid-terms or the 2024 presidential run, and about who stands best for saying this or that, just seems so 2019.  The rules have changed.

    • #115
  26. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Saw this headline just now and I’m beyond stunned and shocked! It makes me sick to my stomach. My first thought is they are trying to dissuade him from announcing he is running or shock anyone who might think about running to watch your step.  Wow!  We are in treacherous seas 

    • #116
  27. Raxxalan Member
    Raxxalan
    @Raxxalan

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    This is just weird. This all feels off-kilter. So the FBI is making a raid now, because they have (per CNN) an unofficial policy of not doing big moves 90 days before an election, and they want to get the classified documents for THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, because Trump was known, supposedly, to tear things up and flush them down the toilet.

    Well. I can believe that the National Archives wants everything; it’s in the username. I can believe that Trump would tear up stuff he didn’t want preserved, unless you think that he was personally horrified by the idea that this *stupid piece of paper from some idiot that said something stupid* simply must be preserved to maintain the total integrity of the historical record. What, tear up this printed copy of a Tweet I had in my drafts folder? Perish the thought. I know I’m supposed to get all watergatey when I hear “classified,” but A) we learned how many levels of “classified” exist, and B) how it doesn’t matter if the sender is the Secretary of State using a private server, because “classified” might apply to her yoga appointments.

    I can believe he had some stuff in his personal safe, but if was proof of some perfidy, and he’s also accused of ripping things up, well, are we supposed to believe he took the transcripts of his conversation with Putin in which he promised to toe the Russian line, and kept it? Is the stuff in the safe proof of his misdeeds, or someone else’s? Or, was this an excuse to hoover up everything in the safe and sort it out later?

    If the “classified documents” line was a cover story, and they get something else out of this they really wanted – business or tax shenanigans, none of which would surprise me [New York real estate magnate played with the rules? Shocked Picachu face] – we’ll be expected to wave away the whole fruit-of-the-poisoned-tree thing, or accept that the DoJ actually had a different objective, and lied to us for our own benefit because it would just look bad to conduct a raid without a reason. Now we can tell you what we were after, and aren’t you glad we made sure no one was above the law?

    This is a hyuge line to cross, and to do it without something big behind it seems immensely foolhardy. I’d say the downsides outweigh the positives, but the FBI can probably count on a friendly media and anti-Trump cohort to shrug if nothing comes of it. Best case scenario: someone in Atlantic mag or the WaPo ediorial section, two years hence, en route to condemning the DeSantis administration’s investigation of Biden-China financial connections, admits that the Trump raid “opened the door” to these things, BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT RIGHT

    It will be a dangerous precedent when it’s applied to a D.

    I would bet it is something that is politically damaging to Biden.  The FBI is just a retrieval agency for the skeletons in Biden’s closet now.

    • #117
  28. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Will it be possible to have a reasonably free election in this country?   If elections were free there would be a Republican Senate and House after November.  If not, the Presidential election will be in the bag for them.  They have to get rid of Trump because he can self finance and fights, but not just to elect himself.  He might  throw his support to a younger person whether it’s openly fair or not.   What are they doing? Trying to put him in jail?, keep him out of the race? just cause confusion and a big story so stupid Republicans and moderates won’t vote for him? Or just ignore the November election fraud?  It’s not clear.  Are the Chinese behind it?    Well yes, of course, but how much is just Democrat greed and stupidity?  Do they think this country can be run by a clique from the top, even without China trying to destroy us?   Do we have the guts, organizational ability and financial support to just pull out when it becomes clear and form our own nation?   Lordy there are a lot of unknowns, but the biggest one is ourselves.  I live in a state with a Democrat governor, and live on government retirement.  

    • #118
  29. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Styx’s take (language warning)

     

     

    • #119
  30. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Looks like the magistrate who signed the warrant was once a prosecutor involved in the Epstein case who crossed over to defend some of Epstein’s “associates.”

    More to come on this.

    • #120
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