Saturday 13 August 2022 08:37 AM ANDREW NEIL: Why FBI's raid on Trump's home made America - and the free world - ... trends now

Those who've seen or spoken to Donald Trump this week say he's more energised and confident about a political comeback than at any time since he reluctantly left the White House in January 2021, falsely claiming to have won the presidential election.

Far from being cowed by Monday's FBI raid on his Florida home, he's buoyed up by the Republican party rallying behind him with one voice, boasting that even long-standing critics in his own party have publicly condemned the FBI and backed him.

The gerontocracy that controls the Democrats was hoping the FBI raid would discredit Trump and deter him from another bid for the presidency. They couldn't have been more wrong.

The raid has boomeranged badly on the Biden administration, making it more certain than ever that Trump will run again for the Republican nomination, more likely than ever to win it (indeed, as things stand, he's unstoppable) — and start the next presidential election race as likely favourite to re-take the White House in November 2024, whoever his Democratic opponent.

It's quite a week's work for the ancient bumblers at the top of the Democratic party machine. If you're partial to conspiracy theories you might even conclude that the Democrats have been secretly infiltrated by folks whose mission it is to give Trump a new lease of political life.

Of course, there's much we still don't know about what lies behind the FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence on Florida's swanky Palm Beach. It could be the Feds were in pursuit of documents devastating to Trump's hopes of reviving his political ambitions. But that remains to be established.

The Biden-appointed Attorney General, Merrick Garland, the government's chief law officer who approved the warrant for the search (which also had to be sanctioned by a federal judge), decided on Thursday it should be made public. Trump did not contest that, perhaps because it doesn't reveal much.

Last night the warrant was officially released. It disclosed the FBI removed 20 boxes from Mar-a-Lago including 11 sets of classified documents, some marked top secret.

That sounds serious but there are no details of what's in the documents and Trump says he declassified the material while still President, which was in his power. 

Whether that was done properly remains to be seen.

The affidavit accompanying the warrant would be much more revealing since that would contain the reasons for seeking a warrant. But, so far, there are no plans to publish that, even in redacted form.

Since the raid, it has been suggested that Federal agents were investigating potential crimes associated with violations of the Espionage Act.

But America is still largely in the dark as to exactly why the Biden administration took the unprecedented step of raiding the residence of a former President, with dozens of agents scouring the property, including Melania Trump's bedroom, while others armed to the teeth stood guard outside.

(It wasn't clear who they thought might threaten them since Palm Beach, a billionaires' enclave, is not exactly renowned for even peaceful street demonstrations, never mind armed uprisings.)

Such heavy-handed tactics are unlikely to have been prompted by a desire to retrieve some historical presidential documents that belong in the national archives.

Now, it is true that Trump departed the White House with boxes of documents that should have been left behind to be archived, whether intentionally or because of the chaotic nature of his departure is not clear. And that is a felony.

A dozen boxes were returned almost immediately and negotiations continued about those that remained at Mar-a-Lago. Two months ago, the FBI asked if they could be put under lock and key while the issue was resolved. Trump's people complied. The lock was smashed in Monday's raid.

Just why talks were abandoned is not

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