FBI agents worried that they did not have probable cause for the raid on President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, but went ahead with it anyway under pressure from then-President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.
A report published Tuesday by Fox News Digital detailed a number of emails between the FBI and the DOJ regarding concerns that Trump had taken classified documents to his Florida home — and how to best resolve the situation — and the DOJ ignored the FBI agents assigned to the case who repeatedly suggested alternatives to an outright raid of the property.
“Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents,” one FBI official — identified as an assistant special agent in charge — wrote to Anthony Riedlinger, another FBI official. “From the interviews, [Washington Field Office] has gathered information suggesting that there may be additional boxes (presumably of the same type as were sent back to NARA in January) at Mar-a-Lago.”
The official added that while they were in the process of drafting a search warrant, there were “some concerns that the information is single source, has not been corroborated, and may be dated.”
“DOJ CES opines, however, that the SW’s meet the probable cause standard,” the official said, but went on to note that the WFO still had reservations and had suggested instead that they have a conversation with Trump’s attorneys, informing them that the FBI was moving on a search warrant in the hopes of encouraging cooperation rather than confrontation.
Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships
“At a minimum, even if the former president’s attorney is correct and the documents were all declassified (or believed to be declassified), it can be reasonably argued that the documents remain sensitive and should be properly secured until the matter of classification is sorted out,” the official added, noting that they could still move forward with the search warrant process at the same time.
Weeks passed and then another email from an unnamed FBI agent stated, “We haven’t generated any new facts, but keep being given draft after draft after draft.”
The agent made it clear that the case was viewed as a nonstarter and an overall waste of time: “Absent a witness coming forward with recent information about classified on site, at what point is it fair to table this? It is time consuming for the team, and not productive if there are no new facts supporting PC (probable cause)?”
Yet another email stated that officials within the WFO did “not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar a Lago.”
Additionally, FBI officials asserted that plans for a raid should be set aside in favor of “alternative, less intrusive and likelier quicker options for resolution.”
“The FBI intends for the execution of the warrant to be handled in a professional, low key manner, and to be mindful of the optics of the search,” another agent wrote, noting that Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toscas had said he “frankly doesn’t give a damn about the optics.”
“I understand that this request may not go well at DOJ, however, it is the FBI serving and executing the search and it will be our personnel who will have to deal with the reaction to that first contact,” the agent added.
The raid went ahead on August 8, 2022.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the report in an X post on Tuesday, saying, “It’s true – we just turned over documents to Capitol Hill to be made public showing the FBI told DOJ they did not have probable cause for raiding President Trump’s home in Mar A Lago but DOJ “didn’t give a damn” and did it anyway.”
.png)
.png)
