US Attorney General says he 'personally approved' Trump home search
Donald Trump's "bluff" has been called by the US Attorney General, especially as the latter put the onus on the former President to object or consent to the release of the search warrant.
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US Attorney General Merrick Garland
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday he "personally approved" the FBI raid on former US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
Making for quite an unusual move, Garland was requesting that the warrant justifying the search be made public in light of the outrage among the ranks of Republicans over the process deemed "unlawful" by many.
Garland did not reveal why the raid - which raised many eyebrows mostly due to it being unusual for law enforcement to raid the home of a former US president - took place. He condemned the "unfounded attacks" on the FBI and the Department of Justice that followed suit.
"I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant," Garland told reporters. "The department does not take such a decision lightly."
Garland stressed that there were ethical obligations preventing him from going into details about the raid; he did note, however, that he had asked a Florida judge to unseal the warrant because Trump publicly confirmed the search, saying there was "substantial public interest in this matter."
The dramatic FBI raid on Donald Trump's palatial Florida residence has supercharged the bitter, polarizing political debate around the slew of judicial investigations facing the former President as he considers another White House run.
Former US President Donald Trump said Monday that his Mar-A-Lago residence in Florida was being "raided" by FBI agents in what he called an act of "prosecutorial misconduct".
The FBI declined to comment on whether the search was happening or what it might be for, and Trump did not indicate why federal agents were at his home.
Trump later on, with a copy of the search warrant in his possession while declining to reveal its contents, said he would not oppose the unsealing of the warrant.
"Not only will I not oppose the release of documents... I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents," the Republican wrote on Truth Social, the social media site he launched this year.
Trump reiterated his claim that the search was an "unprecedented political weaponization of law enforcement," which was later called out by Andrew Weissman, a former Justice Department official. He said Garland had "called Trump's bluff" by making it his responsibility to object or consent to the release of the document.
The Justice Department's motion to unseal the warrant noted statements by Trump's representatives that the FBI was seeking presidential records and potential classified material, without denying the claims.
US media said the search related to potential mishandling of classified documents taken to Trump's estate in Florida after he left the White House in January 2021.
Anonymous sources close to the investigation told The Washington Post on Thursday saying that classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the papers sought by the FBI agents during the raid.
The newspaper did not clarify if the nuclear weapons involved belonged to the United States or another country nor whether they were found.
The whole debacle with the Department of Justice deals a Trump mighty legal blow, which constitutes his latest, as he fights numerous other cases, including the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which obstructs his path to a new presidency at the White House in 2024.
