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One day after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, one prominent Republican says he got a visit from the bureau.
Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Scott Perry Perry said he and his family were traveling on Tuesday when they were approached by three FBI agents who handed him a warrant and requested that he turn over his cellphone.
“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone. They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish. I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress,” Perry said in his statement. “My phone contains info about my legislative and political activities, and personal/private discussions with my wife, family, constituents, and friends. None of this is the government’s business.”
Fox News reported:
Perry, a five-term congressman and loyal Trump ally, is an original member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and took over as the group’s leader at the beginning of the year. Perry was also a strong supporter of Trump’s repeated unproven claims that his 2020 election loss to now-President Biden was due to massive voter fraud.
Perry has been a target of interest of the Democratic-dominated January 6 House select committee that is investigating the deadly 2021 attack on the Capitol by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters who aimed to disrupt the congressional certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory. Perry was in communication numerous times with the Trump White House in the days and weeks ahead of the storming of the Capitol.
EXCLUSIVE – Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania says the FBI has confiscated his cell phone. https://t.co/PsWvIdyXYs
— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) August 9, 2022
Eric Trump revealed that FBI agents who raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida broke into his safe — but it was empty.
The 45th president’s son told Fox News Channel‘s Brian Kilmeade that the safe was “empty” and that over two dozen FBI agents were involved in the raid.
Eric Trump said the raid was to find documents that should have gone to the National Archives. It’s unknown if they retrieved the documents, but Eric Trump said there was nothing in the safe that the agents searched.
“Nothing was in the safe,” Kilmeade said, quoting Eric Trump.
Former President Trump revealed on Monday that his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was raided by a “large group” of FBI agents.
The FBI’s unannounced raid was allegedly tied to boxes of classified information that Trump had supposedly taken to his Florida estate.
The New York Times reported:
The search, according to two people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club, and residence after he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents.
Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of the material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action being taken to retrieve them.
Trump was not in attendance at the time of the raid.
The search was at least in part for whether any records remained at the club, the person familiar with the search said. The reported search came at a time when the Justice Department has also been stepping up questioning of former Trump aides who had been witnesses to discussion and planning in the White House of Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in office after his loss in the 2020 election.
“They were not being judicious about what they took,” the source tells Fox News.
— Sean Langille (@SeanLangille) August 9, 2022
Trump released a powerful statement immediately after the raid.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump said.
“It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections,” he added.
“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before,” Trump said, alleging that the FBI agents broke into his safe.
“What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee?” he said. “Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.”
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, one of many criticizing the raid, called it “an unprecedented political weaponization of the Justice Department.”
The FBI raid on President Trump’s home is an unprecedented political weaponization of the Justice Department. They’ve been after President Trump as a candidate, as President, and now as a former President. Using the criminal justice system in this manner is un-American.
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) August 9, 2022
