OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump is livid after what he claims the FBI did in the bedrooms of his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, and his 16-year-old son Barron.
The former president had a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on Saturday where he tore into what the FBI allegedly did at Mar-a-Lago.
He said that the agents “rifled through” Melania Trump’s closet and “even did a deep and ugly search of the room of my 16-year-old son.”
“The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everyone else in the polls—I hate to say it—even including the Republicans, but we love the Republicans,” he said during a speech in Pennsylvania on Saturday,
He claimed that raid happened only after “getting permission from a highly political magistrate, who they handpicked late in the evening, just days before the break in and trampled upon my rights and civil liberties.”
“Then they put out for public consumption a picture, which is seen all over the world. This is what they do. It’s called disinformation. These are very dishonest, sick people,” the former president said. “Very dishonest people. Americans are sick of the lies, sick of the hoaxes and scams, and above all, sick of the hypocrisy.”
BREAKING: Donald Trump says the FBI did a “deep and ugly search” of 16 year-old Barron’s room during the raid on Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/qLNgHsxXVy
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 4, 2022
It was not the first time that the former president tore into the FBI regarding the search.
The first photos of the so-called “top secret” documents obtained during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago were released last week and it didn’t take long for former President Donald Trump to respond.
The Department of Justice submitted a filing on Tuesday to the court explaining its reasoning for opposing Trump’s request for a “special master” to review the seized documents for potential attorney-client privileged and executive privileged documents.
The DOJ’s filing included an attachment of a photo showing supposed “top secret” documents laid out all over the floor of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago from the August 8 raid.
The 45th president responded to the photo on his Truth Social website with a perfect response:
Below is a tweet featuring the DOJ’s image that was roundly mocked on social media:
The "Top Secret" Mar-a-Lago documents were so secret and Earth-shatteringly important that the FBI agents dumped them on the floor and took pictures of them for their Blue Anon friends in the media. pic.twitter.com/VD8XFB9fEA
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 31, 2022
“That TIME Magazine cover was huge threat to national security,” the GOP House Judiciary said.
That TIME Magazine cover was huge threat to national security. 🙄 https://t.co/yy0AOmxMEh
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 31, 2022
The Department of Justice responded on Tuesday to Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida regarding former President Donald Trump’s request for a “special master” to be appointed to review the documents taken from the August 8 raid of Mar-a-Lago.
The DOJ claimed designating a special master — a third-party lawyer appointed by the court to oversee part of the case — would be a threat to national security.
“The Justice Department argued in a court filing that Trump lacks the legal standing to appoint a special master. Appointing that watchdog could harm national security, the agency warned,” CNBC reported. “The department also said it has evidence that government records likely were concealed and removed from a storage room at Trump’s home at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”
“Trump had sued to block the Justice Department from further investigating any materials taken in the raid until a court-appointed special master is able to analyze them. That step is typically taken when there is a chance that some evidence should be withheld from prosecutors because of various legal privileges,” the outlet added.
“As an initial matter, the former President lacks standing to seek judicial relief or oversight as to Presidential records because those records do not belong to him,” the DOJ wrote to Judge Cannon.
The DOJ claimed in its court filing on Tuesday that the FBI had “uncovered multiple sources of evidence indicating … that classified documents remained” at Mar-a-Lago.
“The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the DOJ wrote.
The Justice Department’s filing came days after Judge Cannon announced her preliminary intent to appoint a special master, as requested by the attorneys for Trump, to review documents that the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago.
Cannon said the decision was made based on submissions from the former president’s attorneys and “the exceptional circumstances presented,” Fox News reported.
