WASHINGTON-
The FBI’s unprecedented search for the Florida residence of former US President Donald Trump reverberated across government, politics and a polarized country on Tuesday, along with questions about why the Justice Department, remarkably cautious under Attorney General Merrick Garland, decided to take such a drastic step.
The answers did not come quickly.
Agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, which is also a private club, on Monday as part of a federal investigation into whether the former president took classified White House records to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said. . It marked a dramatic escalation in police scrutiny of Trump, who is facing a series of investigations related to his conduct in the closing days of his administration.
From echoes of Watergate to the more immediate House investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, Washington, a city accustomed to sleepy Augusts, lurched from one speculative or accusatory headline to the next. Was the Department of Justice politicized? What prompted him to seek authorization to search the estate for classified documents now, months after it was revealed that Trump had taken boxes of materials with him when he left the White House after losing the 2020 election?
Garland has not bowed despite protests from some impatient Democrats about whether the department was looking into evidence that emerged in the Jan. 6 investigation and other investigations, and from Republicans who were quick to echo Trump’s claims that that he was the victim. of political persecution.
All Garland has said publicly is that “no one is above the law.”
FBI agents descended on Trump’s home, which was closed for the season, in New York, about a thousand miles away, with search warrants.
Monday’s search escalated a months-long investigation into how classified documents ended up in White House record boxes located at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. A separate grand jury is investigating efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, all adding to potential legal danger for Trump as he lays the groundwork for a potential repeat White House bid.
Familiar battle lines, forged during a four-year presidency shadowed by investigations, quickly took shape again. Trump and his allies tried to portray the search as a weapon of the criminal justice system and a Democratic-driven effort to prevent him from winning another term in 2024, even though the Biden White House said it had no prior knowledge and the current director FBI, Christopher. Wray was appointed by Trump five years ago.
Trump, revealing the search in a lengthy statement late Monday, claimed agents had broken into a safe at his home and described their work as an “unannounced raid” that he likened to “prosecutorial misconduct.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson declined to comment on the search, even if Garland had personally authorized it.
About two dozen Trump supporters protested mid-morning Tuesday in the Florida summer heat and sporadic light rain on a bridge near the former president’s residence. One held a sign that read “Democrats Are Fascists,” while others carried flags that read “2020 was rigged,” “Trump 2024ΓÇ│ and Biden’s name with an obscenity. Some cars honked in support as they passed.
Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence, a potential rival for 2024, tweeted Tuesday: “Yesterday’s action undermines public confidence in our justice system and Attorney General Garland must be held accountable to the American people for why this action was taken. and you should.” so immediately”
Trump planned to meet Tuesday at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with members of the Republican Study Committee, a group led by Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana that says it is committed to presenting its priorities to Congress.
The FBI contacted 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 granting access to the property, the person said.
The Justice Department has been investigating possible mishandling of classified information since the National Archives and Records Administration said it had received 15 boxes of White House records, including documents containing classified information, from Mar-a-Lago. early this year. The National Archives said Trump should have turned over the material upon leaving office and asked the Justice Department to investigate.
There are several federal laws that govern the handling of classified records and sensitive government documents, including statutes that make it a crime to remove such material and retain it in an unauthorized location. Although a search warrant does not necessarily mean that criminal charges are close or even expected, federal officials seeking to obtain one must first prove to a judge that they have probable cause that a crime occurred.
Two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said Monday’s search was related to the records investigation. Agents were also looking to see if Trump had any additional presidential records or classified documents at the estate.
Trump has previously maintained that the presidential records were released “in an ordinary and routine process.” His son Eric said on Fox News Monday night that he had spent the day with his father and that the search was done because “the National Archives wanted to verify whether or not Donald Trump had any documents in his possession.” the”.
Asked how the documents ended up at Mar-a-Lago, Eric Trump said the boxes were among items taken out of the White House for “six hours” on inauguration day as the Bidens prepared. to move into the building.
“My father always kept press clippings,” said Eric Trump. “He had boxes when he moved out of the White House.”
Trump himself, in a social media post Monday night, called the pursuit “arming 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 through 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 criticized that decision, then stepped up his criticism of the FBI when agents began investigating whether his campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the 2016 election. He fired Comey during that investigation, and while he named Wray months later, he also criticized him. repeatedly as president.
Thomas Schwartz, a Vanderbilt University history professor who studies and writes about the presidency, said there is no precedent for a former president facing an FBI raid, even since Watergate. President Richard Nixon was not allowed to take tapes or other materials from the White House when he resigned in 1974, Schwartz noted, and many of his documents remained in Washington for years before being transferred to his presidential library in California. .
The investigation is not the only legal headache facing Trump. A separate investigation related to his and his allies’ efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, which led to the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol, has also escalated. 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 tried to interfere in that state’s election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden.
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Associated Press writers Terry Spencer, Meg Kinnard, Michelle L. Price and Will Weissert contributed to this report.