On Thursday, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted that he “personally approved” of the FBI’s unprecedented and controversial raid of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and announced that the Department of Justice has filed a motion to unseal the search warrant. “I personally
MoreOn Thursday, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted that he “personally approved” of the FBI’s unprecedented and controversial raid of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and announced that the Department of Justice has filed a motion to unseal the search warrant.
“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” Garland said during a press briefing, adding that the Department of Justice “does not take such a decision lightly.”
“The Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland continued. “Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department, of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor. under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing.”
“All Americans are entitled to the even-handed application of the law, to due process of law, and to the presumption of innocence. Much of our work is by necessity conducted out of the public eye,” Garland said. “We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations.”
Garland also addressed what he called “recent unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors,” saying that he “will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked.”
Garland’s comments come a week after FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned the “deeply troubling” actions of an FBI agent who allegedly worked to suppress information in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s business foreign business dealings.
Wray made the comments during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, after being asked by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) about the alleged actions of Timothy Thibault, who Wray said was an FBI assistant special agent in charge at the Washington field office until “relatively recently.”
Kennedy questioned Wray on the allegations that Thibault – who worked on both the investigation of links between Trump and Russia and the ongoing probe into Hunter Biden – had “covered up derogatory info about Mr. Biden while working at the FBI.”
According to Politico, Wray said that he’d seen “descriptions to that effect” but that he wanted to be “careful” to not interfere with any ongoing personnel matters. Wray did, however, concede to finding the allegations “deeply troubling.”
“I should say that when I read the letter that describes the kinds of things that you’re talking about, I found it deeply troubling,” he told Kennedy.
On Wednesday, an Iranian national and member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was charged by federal law enforcement officials for allegedly attempting to assassinate former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Beginning in October 2021, 45-year-old Shahram Poursafi, aka Mehdi Rezayi, of Tehran, Iran, allegedly attempted to arrange the assassination of Bolton in retaliation for the Trump administration’s January 2020 killing of terrorist Qasem Soleimani who was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force (IRGC-QF).
The Department of Justice said that Poursafi attempted to pay individuals in the United States $300,000 to assassinate Bolton in Washington, D.C. or Maryland. Poursafi also allegedly attempted to pay $1 million for a second target.
“Today the Department of Justice unsealed charges against an individual affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The charging document outlines allegations regarding Iran’s continued attempts to carry out an assassination against former National Security Advisor John Bolton on American soil,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in response to the report. “We have said this before and we will say it again: the Biden Administration will not waiver in protecting and defending all Americans against threats of violence and terrorism. Should Iran attack any of our citizens, to include those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences. We will continue to bring to bear the full resources of the U.S. Government to protect Americans.”
“We commend the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their diligence and professionalism in this matter,” Sullivan added.
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 (@jmartNYT) 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.”
On Monday, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, saying the Biden administration has turned the United States into a “Banana Republic.”
“The raid of [Mar-a-Lago] is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”
The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) August 9, 2022
Earlier that day, Trump announced that FBI agents had raided his Mar-a-Lago home.
“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 in a statement. “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.”
On Sunday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) defended his decision to vote against the PACT Act, a bill to aid military veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits, explaining that Democrats were attempting to exploit the pain of military veterans to “sneak in something completely unrelated.”
Toomey made the comments during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with anchor Jake Tapper, during which he responded to “false accusations” from comedian Jon Stewart who he called a “pseudo-celebrity.”
“People take a sympathetic group of Americans — and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals — craft a bill to address their problems, and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on its own, and dare Republicans to do anything about it,” Toomey said.
Democrats will then “unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there,” Toomey explained.
Last week, Toomey explained that Democrats had used a budgetary trick in their version of the bill to enable an additional $400 billion in spending completely unrelated to veterans.
“The PACT Act as written includes a budget gimmick that would allow $400 billion of current law spending to be moved from the discretionary to the mandatory spending category,” Toomey said. “This provision is completely unnecessary to achieve the PACT Act’s stated goal of expanding health care and other benefits for veterans. However, it would enable an additional $400 billion in future discretionary spending completely unrelated to veterans. By failing to remove this gimmick, Congress would effectively be using an important veterans care bill to hide a massive, unrelated spending binge.”
