Former President Trump shared an announcement on Twitter detailing a raid the FBI conducted on his home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Trump referred to the incident as “prosecutorial misconduct,” and a “weaponization of the Justice System.” He was reportedly in New York City at the time of the raid.
The cause of the raid was Trump’s delay in returning 15 boxes believed to contain classified information to the National Archives.
Fox News reported that the FBI brought a “safe cracker” to break into a “relatively new” safe in Trump’s home. There was reportedly nothing in the safe.
The same source went on to tell Fox news “that FBI agents went to Mar-a-Lago and looked in every single office, safe, and grabbed documents and boxes without going through them on the property. They took boxes and documents to go through them later.”
"They were not being judicious about what they took," the source told Fox News.
Sources have informed Fox News that the search warrant for the raid was signed by a federal magistrate judge, indicating a criminal warrant rather than a national security warrant which would be administered by the NATSEC division of the FBI. Instead, the warrant was issued by the criminal division and signed by a FISA judge.
Though the raid seems to be unexpected, the controversy around the boxes themselves has been an ongoing dialogue between Trump’s legal team and the National Archives for at least six months. A letter was released by the National Archives discussing the NARA’s process of inventorying the contents of the boxes.
CNN reported a quote from Christina Bobb, Trump's attorney, who said the FBI seized documents. "President Trump and his legal team have been cooperative with FBI and DOJ officials every step of the way. The FBI did conduct an unannounced raid and seized paper," Bobb said.
The White House denied any prior knowledge of the raid. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that the White House “learned just like the American public did, yesterday, and we did not have advanced notice of this activity.”