A federal search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate has sent shockwaves through the political world, prompting questions about the Department of Justice and FBI’s possible pursuit of evidence that could stop the former president from another bid for the White House.
Top White House officials said President Joe Biden had no advance knowledge of the raid and was not involved in the deliberations by his top prosecutors to go after his predecessor and possible future rival. Republicans immediately expressed concern that Biden was weaponizing the Justice Department against a political foe.
The raid is believed to be connected to Trump’s possible mishandling of classified materials after the National Archives removed 15 boxes containing presidential records from Mar-a-Lago in early 2022.
TRUMP SAYS FBI ‘RAIDED’ MAR-A-LAGO
Asked on Tuesday whether Attorney General Merrick Garland had signed off on the warrant to search the former president’s home, whether Biden and Garland spoke following the raid, or if Biden believes the DOJ acted accordingly by sending in federal agents, Biden’s press secretary declined to say, referring questions to the DOJ.
Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “has been very clear” that the DOJ operates independently from the White House.
“He believes in the rule of law, and we are a nation of laws,” Jean-Pierre said. “We learned about this just like the public, just as you all were reporting it — through the public reports.”
She would not even describe Trump as a political rival of the current president when asked by a reporter despite Biden’s public suggestions he would be “very fortunate” to draw a rematch.
Jean-Pierre also declined to say what Biden was doing when he found out.
“He learned about it, really, like all of us did. I’m sure maybe someone on his team flagged it for him,” she said. “What I can tell you definitively and for sure: He was not aware of this. Nobody in the White House was. We were not given a heads-up, and we did not know about what happened yesterday.”
Amid the reckoning Tuesday, a source said Trump was huddled in New Jersey at his Bedminster golf course with family members, including his daughter Ivanka, and a small group of attorneys and aides, among them close adviser Susie Wiles.
“He is hunkered down in bunker mode,” the source said. “There’s only a very small team around him, and Eric and Lara [Trump] are probably going to be the only ones that will officially come out and speak.”
Eric Trump told Fox News on Monday that he received the call about the FBI’s search and was the one to inform his father. He said he was informed that the raid was related to a Justice Department probe of his father’s alleged mishandling of classified material.
Trump, in a statement on Monday, said the FBI had “raided” his South Florida property, “occupied” it with “a large group of FBI agents,” and put it “under siege.”
On Tuesday, he took to Truth Social with a storm-laden video declaring the United States a “nation in decline.” But he has said little else.
“We probably won’t know more about what his intent is until he comes out of his bunker,” the source said.
The search of Trump’s property is uncharted territory.
“There’s no precedent for a search like this. I’ve never heard of it in 60 years for a crime which is generally punishable by administrative fines,” constitutional rights attorney Alan Dershowitz told the Washington Examiner.
He said a search should only be used when there’s concern a subpoena would prompt records to be destroyed. “There’s no evidence of that. He was 1,000 miles away,” Dershowitz said of Trump.
Not only does the search set a dangerous precedent, but it is also likely to boost Trump politically, with the attorney saying he “wouldn’t be surprised” if support for the former president grows.
According to Fox News, the search was prompted by a perceived breakdown in the negotiations between Trump and the federal agencies investigating him.
Dershowitz said pressure is being heaped on the Justice Department from the outside, pointing to comments by Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, who taught Garland as a student.
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Tribe has repeatedly urged Garland to indict Trump, telling a Boston public radio show last month that “if Merrick Garland is awake, if he’s as smart as I think he was as a student, he’s got to be about to indict.”
“We shouldn’t assume that the attorney general is asleep at the switch,” Tribe continued. “The proof is going to be in the pudding, and here, the pudding is going to look like an indictment, I hope.”
