Wednesday 10 August 2022 12:49 PM Trump says Mar-a-Lago staff and lawyers were blocked from watching raid agents trends now
Donald Trump lamented Wednesday that the FBI blocked any of his staff, including lawyers, from the areas where the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home happened on Monday and cast doubt on whether the agents 'planted' evidence.
Those working for the former president who were at his Florida estate during the raid refused to turn off security cameras on the premises despite instructions from federal agents to do so, according to The New York Post.
Comes as Trump confirmed on his alternative social media site Tuesday evening that he will be deposed Wednesday in questioning part of the New York attorney general's civil investigation into his family's real estate business.
The New York probe is just one of many the former president is facing, including the one that led to the raid on Monday involving the reported removal of official documents from the White House when he left office last year.
'The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago,' Trump posted to his Truth Social page on Wednesday morning.
'Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting,' he continued while placing doubt that the raid was conducted properly.
Trump, 76, questioned: 'Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out? Obama and Clinton were never 'raided,' despite big disputes!'
Even though Palm Beach reached a sweltering 91 degrees with high humidity on Monday, Trump's lawyers were left outside near a parking lot and were not allowed inside the air conditioned building where the raid was happening.
The former president was spotted arriving back at his Manhattan residence in Trump Tower on Tuesday night.
The raid on his Florida home the previous day saw investigators ransack his office for several hours – and even included a search through former first lady Melania Trump's wardrobe.
Donald Trump is seen on Tuesday evening arriving at Trump Tower, the day after the Mar-a-Lago raid
The former president complained Wednesday that the FBI wouldn't let his lawyers or other staff near the raid Monday
Trump continued to vent his fury on Tuesday at the raid - which is believed to have been carried out to retrieve documents the former president took from the White House when he left.
By law, all presidential correspondence and documentation must be handed over to the National Archives, and since February it has been clear that Trump did not comply. Some documents were returned to the National Archives at the beginning of this year, but apparently not all.
FBI agents were inside the 128-room Florida estate for nine hours on Monday, with 30 agents roaming through the entire 3,000-square-foot private quarters.
The investigators searched the master bedroom, known as the Versailles Room, which Melania Trump renovated two years ago.
Their rummaging through Melania's wardrobe was not explained by the paper.
Trump was also in Manhattan on Monday, when the raid was carried out
The 76-year-old waved to the waiting press as he arrived back at Trump Tower
Trump reacted with fury to Monday's raid, calling it an abuse of power and FBI over-reach
Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, late Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump said in a lengthy statement that the FBI was conducting a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and asserted that agents had broken open a safe
The agents also searched a separate office and safe, and a locked basement storage room in which 15 cardboard boxes of material from the White House were stored, the paper said.
The Justice Department has not commented on the raid, which analysts said would have needed to be approved at the highest level.
Sources told the Post that Trump's attorneys, led by Evan Corcoran, were 'cooperating fully' with federal authorities to arrange the return of the documents, with the process beginning in May 2021 when it was noticed that some records were missing.
In January 2022, some of the documents were returned, and in February this year the news became public.
In early June, four top DOJ officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago to speak with the former president's attorneys about the documents.
The DOJ's counterintelligence and export control section chief Jay Bratt was reportedly among the group who sat down with Trump's lawyers.
Trump's team showed the government officials where Trump was storing documents - in a basement room. Investigators reportedly observed that some of the files there were marked as classified.
At one point the former president himself reportedly stopped in to say hello and 'make small talk' before leaving again, CNN reported.
Melania Trump was most recently seen on July 20, at the Manhattan funeral of Donald's first wife Ivana
The former first lady is seen leaving Trump Tower on June 1
The above timeline highlights just some of former president Donald Trump's battles with the National Archives since leaving office, including an unrelated court fight with the January 6 committee
Retired FBI Special Agent Michael Tabman told DailyMail.com it's likely an 'informant' revealed information to the FBI that led to the raid of Trump's home on Monday
Days after the investigators' visit, they reportedly sent a letter to Trump's staff asking them to secure the room where they observed the documents being stored.
Aides then padlocked the area, according to CNN.
It is unclear what transpired between June and this week to make the FBI decide to forcibly claim the documents.
But a former FBI agent told DailyMail.com that Monday's raid was likely sparked by new information from an 'informant' and a breakdown in cooperation between the agency and former president.
Retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Tabman, who served the agency for 24 years, said a raid of this level of sensitivity would need to be approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
'I think somebody gave them information indicating that these documents are there,' Tabman said, adding two hypothetical 'insider' revelations: 'You have not been told the truth about their existence. You're not getting them unless you come get them.'
'I think there was inside information – call it an informant if you want,' he told DailyMail.com. 'I believe either someone told them something or some other information was stumbled upon, which was kind of conclusive in their minds that they had to go now to get that or they're not getting it.'
Tabman claimed while there was cooperation between Trump and the FBI at one point, the agency may have gotten a sense that the former president and his team were 'telling you what they want to tell you with limited information.'
FBI agents with a search warrant raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday morning
Anti-media and pro-Trump protesters stands across the waterfront from Mar A Lago on Monday night
Trump supporters gathered in front of Mar-a-Lago on Monday night
FBI protocol, according to Tabman, is to move forward with seizing information once they feel that 'voluntarily' obtaining it is no longer viable.
'You know, everything could disappear,' Tabman said. 'You got evidence that you need to get before it disappears or it moves and you can't see it anymore.'
In order to obtain the warrant for a raid, the FBI would need to prove probable cause and conduct the search in a timely manner. Agents can't just 'poke around' someone's home in a case like this, Tabman said.
He also claimed the FBI could have gotten the sense that Trump was just no longer being 'fully cooperative' with the investigation – leading them to see the raid approval.
Tabman said that while it doesn't appear any protocols were broken in conducting the raid, it's still an 'unprecedented' move in the sense that the FBI has never raided a former president's home before.
'I can't think of this having happened to a former president,' Tabman noted.
'I don't see any protocols that were broken in any way,' the retired FBI special agent added. 'They must have obviously had probable cause.'
The ex-president was at Trump Tower in New York City when the FBI raided his Florida estate. His son Eric Trump told Fox News he informed his father of the raid.
Trump and his allies quickly sought to cast the search as a weaponization of the criminal justice system and a Democratic-driven effort to keep him from winning another term in 2024 - though the Biden White House said it had no prior knowledge and current FBI Director Christopher Wray was appointed by Trump five years ago.
Trump, disclosing the search in a lengthy statement late Monday, asserted that agents had opened a safe at his home, and he described their work as an 'unannounced raid' that he likened to 'prosecutorial misconduct.'
'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,' Trump said through his Save America PAC,' he said.
'I stood up to America's bureaucratic corruption, I restored power to the people, and truly delivered for our Country, like we have never seen before.
'The establishment hated it.
'Now, as they watch my endorsed candidates win big victories, and see my dominance in all polls, they are trying to stop me, and the Republican Party, once more.
'The lawlessness, political persecution, and Witch Hunt must be exposed and stopped.'
Justice Department spokesperson Dena Iverson declined to comment on the search, including whether Garland had personally authorized it.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the West Wing first learned of the search from public media reports and the White House had not been briefed in the run-up or aftermath.
'The Justice Department conducts investigations independently and we leave any law enforcement matters to them,' she said. 'We are not involved.'
About two dozen Trump supporters stood in protest at midmorning Tuesday in the Florida summer heat and sporadic light rain on a bridge near the former president's residence. One held a sign reading 'Democrats are Fascists' while others carried flags saying '2020 Was Rigged,' 'Trump 2024' and Biden's name with an obscenity. Some cars honked in support as they passed.
Trump's Vice President Mike Pence, a potential 2024 rival, said Tuesday that he was concerned about the FBI's raid - despite their 20-month estrangement.
'I share the deep concern of millions of Americans over the unprecedented search of the personal residence of President Trump,' Pence tweeted Tuesday afternoon. 'No former President of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history.'
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell echoed Pence, saying: 'Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice should already have provided answers to the American people and must do so immediately.'
'The FBI director was appointed by Donald Trump,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when asked about GOP allegations that the raid showed the politicization of the Justice Department. She added, 'Facts and truth, facts and law, that's what it's about.'
Trump was meeting late Tuesday at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club with members of the Republican Study Committee, a group headed by Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana that says it is committed to putting forth his priorities in Congress.
The FBI reached out to the Secret Service shortly before serving a warrant, a third person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Secret Service agents contacted the Justice Department and were able to validate the warrant before facilitating access to the estate, the person said.
The Justice Department has been investigating the potential mishandling of classified information since the National Archives and Records Administration said it had received from Mar-a-Lago 15 boxes of White House records, including documents containing classified information, earlier this year. The National Archives said Trump should have turned over that material upon leaving office, and it asked the Justice Department to investigate.
Christina Bobb, a lawyer for Trump, said in an interview that aired on Real America's Voice on Tuesday that investigators said they were 'looking for classified information that they think should not have been removed from the White House, as well as presidential records.'
There are multiple federal laws governing the handling of classified records and sensitive government documents, including statutes that make it a crime to remove such material and retain it at an unauthorized location. Though a search warrant does not necessarily mean criminal charges are near or even expected, federal officials looking to obtain one must first demonstrate to a judge that they have probable cause that a crime occurred.
Two people familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the search Monday was related to the records probe. Agents were also looking to see if Trump had additional presidential records or any classified documents at the estate.
Trump has previously maintained that presidential records were turned over 'in an ordinary and routine process.' His son Eric said on Fox News on Monday night that he had spent the day with his father and that the search happened because 'the National Archives wanted to corroborate whether or not Donald Trump had any documents in his possession.'
Trump himself, in a social media post Monday night, called the search a 'weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for President in 2024.'
Trump took a different stance during the 2016 presidential campaign, frequently pointing to an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over whether she mishandled classified information via a private email server she used as secretary of state. Then-FBI Director James Comey concluded that Clinton had sent and received classified information, but the FBI did not recommend criminal charges.
Trump lambasted that decision and then stepped up his criticism of the FBI as agents began investigating whether his campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the 2016 election. He fired Comey during that probe, and though he appointed Wray months later, he repeatedly criticized him, too, as president.
The probe is hardly the only legal headache confronting Trump. A separate investigation related to efforts by him and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election - which led to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol - has also been intensifying in Washington. Several former White House officials have received grand jury subpoenas.
And a district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is investigating whether Trump and his close associates sought to interfere in that state's election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Mar-A-Linger: Day two of protests outside Trump's Florida residence draws raucous crowd of flag-waving, MAGA-supporting protestors as ex-president touts latest GOP win from Trump Tower
Trump fanatics of all colors and creeds descended on Mar-a-Lago for a second night to send a defiant message to his political enemies: 'You'll never take down 45'.
The former president's backers included a raucous coalition of Proud Boys, Cuban exiles and African Americans sporting Blacks For Trump T-shirts.
Supporters honked horns, belted out rock anthems and waved flags and banners as they gathered at Trump's Florida residence one day after it was dramatically raided by Feds.
Law enforcement kept the crowds from gathering directly outside the swank private club in Palm Beach where Trump lives part-time from fall to spring.
But a hundred or so die-hards - with MAGA hats, US flags and Trump 2024 shirts - lined the nearby causeway instead to show their contempt for the FBI probe into allegations Trump took a stash of classified documents with him when he left office.
Trump, disclosing the search in a lengthy statement, claimed that agents had opened up a safe at his home and described their work as an 'unannounced raid' that he called 'prosecutorial misconduct.'
He accused the FBI of a double standard, claiming the bureau 'allowed' Hillary Clinton to 'acid wash' 33,000 emails from her time as secretary of state.
For the second consecutive day, irate Donald Trump supporters descended on his Mar-a-Lago home to protest the FBI raided as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to the Florida residence
DailyMail.com cameras saw tons of pro-Trump signs, along with a smattering of anti-Trump protesters near the gated estate on Tuesday after many came just hours after the ex-president himself announced the investigation.
Signs became more and more creative, with one even depicting the former president as John Rambo
'It's a bunch of bull***t. They are looking for anything they can find to stop him from running in 2024,' said Tank, a member of the Broward County Proud Boys chapter who declined to give his full name.
He told DailyMail.com around 20 Proud Boys were headed to Mar-a-Lago to peacefully support the President.
'We have thinned out the bad actors, we don't condone violent behavior,' he insisted, swigging from a bottle of Stella Artois beer and making the controversial OK symbol with his fingers that some say is a white supremacist gesture.
'We are just here to support the future President,' he added. 'Trump will surprise a lot of people in 2024. There are going to be a lot of sad Democrats.'
His sentiments were echoed by Maurice Symonette, 63, a promoter and salesman who pulled into Palm Beach in a Rolls-Royce to protest with Blacks for Trump.
'Before he ran, Trump had the support of rappers, athletes and boxers, you can't call this guy a racist.
'It's Joe Biden who once said n***r in Congress,' he said, referring to Biden's 1985 use of the N-word when quoting someone else.
'This investigation is another feeble attempt to take Trump down. But they can't take down 45. The deplorables are taking over.'
Wheelchair-bound Ray Bulman, a retired firefighter, said he had left his home in Margate, Florida just a handful of times in the past five years prior to making the hour-long trip to Mar-a-Lago.
'I have diabetes, PTSD, I rarely get out of the house. But I had to be here, someone has to stand up for this country,' Ray, 70, told DailyMail.com.
'They are after Trump because he likes to drain the swamp. He has thousands of lawyers but it's hard to beat the government and the lying media.'
DailyMail.com revealed earlier Tuesday that police were on high alert in case Trump backers brought guns to their protest.
But the mood was jubilant and more akin to a tailgate party until police lost patience and started to tow cars for illegally parking along Southern Boulevard which links West Palm Beach to exclusive Palm Beach island.
Accountant Joe Culhane came wielding a baseball bat for a flagpole and wearing a T-shirt declaring his support for 2nd Amendment rights.
He decided against bringing a firearm because he didn't want to make life difficult for the cops, he told DailyMail.com.
'It's difficult for them to know who the good guys are. I could be Antifa for all they know,' said 61-year-old Joe, of Lake Worth, Florida.
'He's got the Louisville Slugger if anyone comes at us,' joked his wife Dianna, 61, clutching a flag with Trump's head superimposed on Rambo's body.
'I was so shook up when I heard about the raid that I could not stop crying,' she added.
'I was standing next to a woman who escaped from China and she said this is the blueprint for what happened there. It's communism.'
Cuban exile Flordelis Grotesan, 52, knew first hand what it was like living under the Castro regime.
She made her feelings plain with a T-shirt that declared 'TRUMP 20/NOW' and 'anti communist'.
'I know what's going on because I was born a slave in cuba, the Democratic Party is like a filtered version of the communist party there,' she told DailyMail.com through a translator.
Her 'F*** BIDEN' baseball hat needed no translation, however.
'Trump has done nothing wrong,' Floredis added. 'They are just looking for excuses to attack him'.
The former president spent much of the day posting to his TRUTH social media