Donald Trump calls for ‘immediate’ release of Mar-a-Lago warrant
Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower Aug. 10, 2022. Image via AP

Donald Trumo
Attorney General Merrick Garland asked a judge to make the warrant public as well.

Former President Donald Trump called late Thursday for the “immediate” release of the federal warrant the FBI used to search his Florida estate, hours after the Justice Department had asked a court to unseal the warrant, with Attorney General Merrick Garland citing the “substantial public interest in this matter.”

In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “Not only will I not oppose the release of documents … I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents.” He continued to assail the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago as “unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary.”

“Release the documents now!” he wrote.

The Justice Department request earlier Thursday is striking because such documents traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation. But the department appeared to recognize that its silence since the search had created a vacuum for bitter verbal attacks by Trump and his allies, and that the public was entitled to the FBI’s side about what prompted Monday’s action at the former president’s home.

“The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing,” said a motion filed in federal court in Florida on Thursday.

Should the warrant be released — the request is now with the judge — it could disclose unflattering information about the former president and about FBI scrutiny of his handling of sensitive government documents right as he prepares for another run for the White House. During his successful 2016 campaign, he pointed frequently to an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over whether she mishandled classified information.

It’s unclear at this point how much information would be included in the documents, if made public, or if they would encompass an FBI affidavit that would presumably lay out a detailed factual basis for the search. The department specifically requested the unsealing of the warrant as well as a property receipt listing the items that were seized, along with two unspecified attachments.

To obtain a search warrant, federal authorities must prove to a judge that probable cause exists to believe that a crime was committed. Garland said he personally approved the warrant, a decision he said the department did not take lightly given that standard practice where possible is to select less intrusive tactics than a search of one’s home.

In this case, according to a person familiar with the matter, there was substantial engagement with Trump and his representatives prior to the search warrant, including a subpoena for records and a visit to Mar-a-Lago a couple of months ago by FBI and Justice Department officials to assess how the documents were stored. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Neither Trump nor the FBI has said anything about what documents the FBI might have recovered, or what precisely agents were looking for. But the former President complained anew Thursday about the search.

Trump, who for years has lambasted the FBI and sought to sow distrust among his supporters in its decisions, said the warrant was served and the search conducted despite his cooperation with the Justice Department over the search.

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said that his “attorneys and representatives were cooperating fully” prior to the search, and that government officials “could have had whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, if we had it.”

The Justice Department has until Friday afternoon to alert the judge about whether Trump will object to the release.

FBI and Justice Department policy cautions against discussing ongoing investigations, both to protect the integrity of probes and to avoid unfairly maligning someone who is being scrutinized but winds up ultimately not being charged. That’s especially true in the case of search warrants, where supporting court papers are routinely kept secret as the investigation proceeds.

In this case, though, Garland cited the fact that Trump himself had provided the first public confirmation of the FBI search, “as is his right.” The Justice Department, in its new filing, also said that disclosing information about it now would not harm the court’s functions.

Even so, Garland, in a hastily scheduled public statement delivered from the Justice Department podium, appeared to acknowledge the unusual nature of the department’s request as he declined to take questions or provide any substantive details about the FBI’s investigation.

“Much of our work is by necessity conducted out of the public eye. We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations,” he said. “Federal law, longstanding department rules and our ethical obligations prevent me from providing further details as to the basis of the search at this time.”

The Justice Department under Garland has been leery of public statements about politically charged investigations, or of confirming to what extent it might be investigating Trump as part of a broader probe into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The department has tried to avoid being seen as injecting itself into presidential politics, as happened in 2016 when then-FBI Director James Comey made an unusual public statement announcing that the FBI would not be recommending criminal charges against Clinton regarding her handling of email — and when he spoke up again just over a week before the election to notify Congress that the probe was being effectively reopened because of the discovery of new emails.

The Mar-a-Lago search warrant served Monday was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Trump’s home in Palm Beach earlier this year. The National Archives had asked the department to investigate after saying 15 boxes of records it retrieved from the estate included classified records. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified information.

The Attorney General also condemned verbal attacks on FBI and Justice Department personnel over the search. Some Republican allies of Trump have called for the FBI to be defunded. Large numbers of Trump supporters have called for the warrant to be released hoping they it will show that Trump was unfairly targeted.

“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said of federal law enforcement agents, calling them “dedicated, patriotic public servants.”

Earlier Thursday, an armed man wearing body armor tried to breach a security screening area at an FBI field office in Ohio, then fled and was later killed after a standoff with law enforcement. A law enforcement official briefed on the matter identified the man as Ricky Shiffer and said he is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol and may have been there on the day it took place.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

Associated Press


10 comments

  • Bill

    August 12, 2022 at 7:34 am

    Seems like the circus is back in town. Every day, another clown show. It was nice to be mostly rid of him for 18 months.

  • Punter Biden - not Hunter

    August 12, 2022 at 8:24 am

    This is an unexpected in your face Checkmate to Biden’s string pulling puppet masters.
    Your move (not my father’s) puppet masters.

    • Elliott Offen

      August 12, 2022 at 9:37 am

      ^ Neo nazi psycho

    • marylou

      August 12, 2022 at 10:40 am

      Not unexpected at all—Trump shocks with his deranged behavior, but never surprises.
      Trump can release the warrant any time he wants. The charges and an itemized list of every single item taken by the FBI are on Trump’s copy. The documents were subpoenaed months ago, and 15 boxes of national security documents were seized by FBI at that time. It was discovered that Trump had not turned over all documents, hence Monday’s warrant.

      Trump was holding US nuclear documents at Mar-a-Lago. Has Trump already sold nuclear secrets ,or used them, to blackmail or to protect himself from being blackmailed, getting $2 billion from the Saudi prince for JarHead or $1billion for Mnuchin, something else? Is Ivanka the snitch? Trump knows it’s all going to come out.

    • marylou

      August 12, 2022 at 10:51 am

      Not unexpected at all—Trump shocks with his deranged behavior, but never surprises.
      Trump can release the warrant any time he wants. The charges and an itemized list of every single item taken by the FBI are on Trump’s copy. The documents were subpoenaed months ago, and 15 boxes of national security documents were seized by FBI at that time. It was discovered that Trump had not turned over all documents, hence Monday’s warrant.

      Reports state that Trump was holding US nuclear documents at Mar-a-Lago. Has Trump already sold nuclear secrets ,or used them, to blackmail or to protect himself from being blackmailed, getting $2 billion from the Saudi prince for JarHead or $1billion for Mnuchin, something else? Is Ivanka the snitch? Trump knows it’s all going to come out.

    • marylou

      August 12, 2022 at 3:10 pm

      Not unexpected at all—Trump shocks with his deranged behavior, but never surprises.
      Trump can release the warrant any time he wants. The charges and an itemized list of every single item taken by the FBI are on Trump’s copy. The documents were subpoenaed months ago, and 15 boxes of national security documents were seized by FBI at that time. It was discovered that Trump had not turned over all documents, hence Monday’s warrant.

      Trump was holding US nuclear documents at Mar-a-Lago. Has Trump already sold nuclear secrets ,or used them, to blackmail or to protect himself from being blackmailed, getting $2 billion from the Saudi prince for JarHead or $1billion for Mnuchin, something else? Is Ivanka the snitch? Trump knows it’s all going to come out.

      Sorry if this is duplicate, triplicate,?

  • Joe Corsin

    August 12, 2022 at 9:36 am

    If you still support Trump then you are stupid… should move to Russia if you want to worship criminal dictators.

  • PeterH

    August 12, 2022 at 9:45 am

    Well the warrant will probably be released but the documents, hard drives and flash drives will not be released to the public. The materials discovered and secured from Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago will be held as evidence for his anticipated criminal trial…..which will occur sometime after the mid-terms.

  • Jay Smif

    August 12, 2022 at 9:51 am

    Traitor Orange Fat Hitler could have released these documents last night, and has admitted to stealing state secrets about our nuclear capabilities. He’s lying and bloviating as always, and the DOJ has him dead to rights now. Espionage charges to follow, and he dies in a cage.

    DeSantis is even worse.

    • Elliott Offen

      August 12, 2022 at 12:42 pm

      To be fair, I don’t think DeSantis is a criminal like Orange Hitler. I don’t like his politics but I don’t think he’s a total grifter and nut job like the Orange Shlong.

Comments are closed.


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