The White House says it did not know about the FBI’s controversial and unprecedented raid on former President Trump’s home in Florida until learning about it on Twitter, according to multiple news outlets.
“Senior White House officials found out about the FBI’s Mar a Lago raid on Twitter, had no notice, per source familiar,” New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin tweeted.
Senior White House officials found out about the FBI’s Mar a Lago raid on Twitter, had no notice, per source familiar
— Jonathan Martin (@jmart) August 8, 2022
According to CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe, a senior White House official said the Biden administration had “No advance knowledge. Some learned [of the raid] from old media some from social media.”
A White House official made the same claim to Fox News Digital, saying, “We did not have notice of the reported action and would refer you to the Justice Department for any additional information.”
News of the FBI raid was initially announced by Trump himself in a statement, saying the raid was “political targeting.”
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
“They even broke into my safe!” Trump added. “It is political targeting at the highest level!”
“The search, according to multiple 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, when he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents,” The New York Times reported. “Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action to retrieve them.”
