Trump investigation Trump claims political persecution after FBI search of Mar-a-Lago residence

In the months before the FBI’s dramatic move to execute a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Florida home — and open his safe to look for items — federal authorities grew increasingly concerned that Trump or his lawyers and aides had not, in fact, returned all the documents and other material that were government property, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Officials became suspicious that when Trump gave back items to the National Archives about seven months ago, either the former president or people close to him held on to key records — despite a Justice Department investigation into the handling of 15 boxes of material sent to the former president’s private club and residence in the waning days of his administration.

After the FBI conducted a search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday reminded those listening that FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was Trump’s choice.

Pelosi faced questions about the search of Trump’s estate after a bill enrollment on Capitol Hill.

“The FBI director was appointed by Donald Trump,” Pelosi told reporters.

Trump nominated Wray, who was an assistant attorney general in George W. Bush’s administration, in June 2017. At the time, Trump said Wray is “an impeccably qualified individual, and I know that he will again serve his country as a fierce guardian of the law and model of integrity once the Senate confirms him to lead the FBI.”

PALM BEACH, Fla. — A die-hard supporter of Donald Trump, Adriane Shochet woke up so angry Tuesday she knew she had to get to Palm Beach to express her support for the former president.

Shochet, 64, rushed around her house in Lake Worth, Fla., and found a loose U.S. flag. Then she hopped in her car and went to the local hardware store and bought a $14 broomstick — affixing her flag to it so she could wave it in protest of Monday’s FBI search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

“I just needed to come out and show the whole free world that this is frightening,” Shochet said, as she stood with her flag on the causeway that overlooks part of the compound. “If they can do this, what’s next?”

Maryland Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox on Tuesday called the FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s residence “criminal” and said that if elected, he would use the full force of government — including the state police and Maryland National Guard — to oppose President Biden’s administration.

“As governor I will use the 9th and 10th Amendments, the Maryland Constitution and Declaration of Rights, the MSP and Maryland Guard to stand against all rogue actions of this out of control tyrannical Biden administration with fierce tenacity,” Cox (R-Frederick) said in a fundraising email to supporters, describing the government’s actions as “nothing short of communist stasi police state tactics.”

Christina Bobb, an attorney for Donald Trump, criticized the search warrant used to conduct the search at Mar-a-Lago as “thin” and confirmed that authorities were looking for classified documents related to the Presidential Records Act.

In an interview on “Real America’s Voice” Tuesday, Bobb said she arrived at Mar-a-Lago as the search was taking place, announced herself as Trump’s legal representation and asked to see the warrant.

Bobb said the supporting documentation for what the probable cause was to obtain the warrant was sealed and that they would have to go to court to request a judge release it — “which, you know, may or may not happen.”

When President Biden tapped Merrick Garland to lead the Justice Department last year, he selected a cautious appeals court judge known as a political moderate who could build consensus.

Garland, a former federal prosecutor, would attempt to rebuild trust in the sprawling and powerful law enforcement agency after the tumultuous Trump presidency, his supporters said. He would try to convince the public and lawmakers that he was an apolitical attorney general, even as he tackled some of the nation’s most contentious political issues.

President Biden was not aware that a warrant had been issued for the FBI to be able to search Mar-a-Lago, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday, a day after the bombshell news that federal law enforcement officials had searched former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate.

“No, the president was not briefed, did not — was not aware of it,” Jean-Pierre said. “No. No one at the White House was given a heads-up. No, that did not happen.”

Jean-Pierre said it would be inappropriate for the White House to comment on any ongoing investigation by the Justice Department, stressing that Biden “has been unequivocal since the campaign” that he believes in the department’s independence.

A federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday that House Democrats are entitled to review Donald Trump’s tax returns for 2015 to 2020, rejecting several legal arguments by the former president, who has sought for years to keep his financial records private.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was a victory for the House Ways and Means Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), first requested in 2019 that the Internal Revenue Service turn over copies of Trump’s tax returns to the committee. The Treasury Department initially declined, and the issue has been tied up in litigation ever since.