The Biden White House’s claim that it had nothing to do with an August raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is being called into question by a watchdog organization.
In an Aug. 24 media event, President Joe Biden said he had no advanced knowledge that the FBI was going to stage the raid as part of a long-running dispute between Trump and the National Archives of documents in Trump’s possession, according to the Daily Beast.
However, the group America First Legal is making a case that the Biden White House helped instigate the raid.
On Twitter, it posted that based on a response to a Freedom of Information Act request, “records obtained from our investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Mar-a-Lago raid further confirm that the FBI obtained access to these records through a ‘special access request’ from the Biden White House on behalf of the DOJ.”
The group posted that despite what it called feigned ignorance of Biden aides at the raid, “the new records we obtained from our investigation into the circumstances of the Mar-a-Lago raid reveal the Biden White House & DOJ coordinated to obtain the Trump records and perhaps create a pretext for the law enforcement raid by way of a ‘special access request.’”
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“What this means is that there are substantial discrepancies between what the Archives has told Congress and what appears in its internal communications,” it posted.
/4 What this means is that there are substantial discrepancies between what the Archives has told Congress and what appears in its internal communications…
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 10, 2023
“For example, Acting Archivist Debra Wall told @RepMikeTurner on August 16, 2022, that NARA ‘had not been involved in the DOJ investigation or any searches that it has conducted.’ This stunning revelation suggests that NARA was misleading Congress about the White House’s role in the shocking raid of President Trump’s home, and the fact that the Biden White House was acting ‘on behalf of’ the DOJ raises significant legal concerns,” the group wrote.
/6 This stunning revelation suggests that NARA was misleading Congress about the White House’s role in the shocking raid of President Trump’s home, and the fact that the Biden White House was acting “on behalf of” the DOJ raises significant legal concerns.
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 10, 2023
The group said that the law used as a justification for the raid was warped beyond its intent in this case.
“The special access statute authorizes special access requests to an incumbent president ONLY when the records in question are needed for ‘the conduct of current business’ of the White House. Providing documents to the DOJ for purposes of a criminal investigation is not the ‘current business’ of the White House,” the group wrote.
/8 …Providing documents to the DOJ for purposes of a criminal investigation is not the “current business” of the White House.
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 10, 2023
/10 EMAIL HERE — Gary Stern, the National Archives’ General Counsel, confirms in an email obtained by America First Legal that “the Justice Department, via the Biden White House, had made the [special access] request,” regarding the documents at President Trump’s home, Mar-a-Lago pic.twitter.com/Rg7WPO5fVX
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 10, 2023
“The evidence further suggests that Biden officials in the Executive Office of the President and the Department of Justice unlawfully abused their power and then lied about it to the American people,” Reed D. Rubinstein, America First Legal senior counselor and director of oversight and investigations, said in a statement on the group‘s website on Monday.
“This government, it seems, acknowledges no limits on its power to harass, intimidate, and silence its political opponents,” Rubinstein said.
Remember how they impeached Trump for allegedly abusing his power to target a political opponent, but then Biden actually did that?
— Whispers of Dementia (@mgEyesOpen) April 10, 2023
@LindseyGrahamSC are you just going to write a strongly worded letter? File impeachment papers. Thanks, 80 million citizens.
— Freedom 🇺🇸 (@freedomspeech50) April 10, 2023
Fox News noted that it has reported on a letter from National Archives and Records Administration acting head Debra Wall wrote a letter to Trump’s attorney about the background to the raid.
“NARA informed the Department of Justice about that discovery, which prompted the Department to ask the President to request that NARA provide the FBI with access to the boxes at issue so that the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community could examine them,” Wall wrote.
“The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege,’” Wall wrote.
