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Former US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was being “raided” by FBI investigators in an act of “prosecutorial malfeasance.”
“These are difficult times for our country,” he said in a message posted on his Truth Social network. “A massive squad of FBI officers is currently sieging, raiding, and occupying my gorgeous home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.”
“It’s prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an onslaught by Radical Left Democrats who desperately want me to run for President in 2024,” Trump continued.
“They even entered my safe!”
The FBI refused to comment on whether the search was ongoing or what it might be for, and Trump provided no clue as to why federal officials were at his home.
However, according to various US media sites citing individuals close to the investigation, investigators were conducting a court-authorized search relating to the possible mishandling of secret documents sent to Mar-a-Lago.
The National Archives announced in February that it had retrieved 15 boxes of records from Trump’s Florida house, which included highly sensitive writings, and that he had taken with him when he departed Washington after his reelection defeat.
The records and souvenirs, which included communication from former US President Barack Obama, should have been turned over by law at the end of Trump’s presidency, but instead wound up at his Mar-a-Lago club.
The discovery of the boxes aroused concerns about Trump’s adherence to presidential records regulations adopted in the aftermath of the Watergate incident in the 1970s, which compel Oval Office occupants to keep materials pertaining to administration activity.
The Archives had then requested that the Justice Department launch an investigation into Trump’s actions.
‘Accountable’
According to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, White House workers frequently witnessed wads of paper clogging toilets, leading some to believe Trump was attempting to dispose of particular documents.
Trump has been the country’s most controversial personality since his last Air Force One trip from Washington to Florida on January 20, last year, continuing his unparalleled campaign to seed falsehoods that he truly won the 2020 election.
For weeks, Washington has been transfixed by congressional hearings on the January 6 storming of the Capitol by a crowd of Trump supporters and his attempts to overturn the election.
The US Department of Justice is also looking into the January 6 strike.
While Attorney General Merrick Garland has declined to comment on the growing speculation that Trump will face criminal charges, he has stated that “no one is above the law” and that he intends to “hold held to account every person who is criminally responsible for intending to overturn a fair vote.”
Trump is also being investigated in Georgia for attempting to tamper with the 2020 election results, while his business activities are being scrutinised in two different cases, one civil and one criminal, in New York.
The real estate tycoon hasn’t formally launched his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race, but he’s been dropping hints for months.
With President Joe Biden’s favour rating currently below 40% and Democrats expected to lose control of Congress in the November midterm elections, Trump appears to be confident that he can ride the Republican wave all the way to the White House in 2024.
