The raid followed suspicions that Trump may have violated the Espionage Act and other laws by taking classified documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021…reports Asian Lite News
Donald Trump has accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of stealing his passports during a recent search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump wrote on Monday on the Truth Social network he co-founded.
“This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”
It remains unclear why Trump only spoke out about this a week after the search of his property in Florida.
The raid followed suspicions that Trump may have violated the Espionage Act and other laws by taking classified documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021.
A court in Florida published the list of seized items as well as the search warrant last Friday at the request of US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The list of seized items includes documents and several boxes. Passports are not explicitly listed there.
Fact checkers at the Washington Post newspaper say Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements in his four-year term from 2017.
Trump and his Republican supporters say the raid was orchestrated by Democrats to deflect from President Joe Biden’s unpopularity. Trump is weighing another presidential bid in 2024.
Protest outside FBI office called off
A pro-Donald Trump protest outside the FBI office here was called off as reportedly no protester turned up fearing a trap.
The Sunday demonstration was first reportedly organised by one Adam Hardage, a far right outwinger, to “protest the out-of-control FBI and its actions” against ex-President Trump, media reports say.
A Sunday demonstration outside the headquarters in the nation’s capital was first promoted by the far-right Falun Gong-backed Epoch Times, who reported shortly after the August 8 raid at Trump’s Florida residence that a veteran named Adam Hardage had called for a demonstration on the following Sunday “to protest the out-of-control FBI and its actions against President Trump”.
The outlet later reported on Thursday, just a few days before the event was scheduled to happen, that it had been cancelled after conspiracies began speculating throughout pro-Trump media forums that the event was a “trap” and could perhaps be co-opted by the same agency the supporters were protesting.
Demonstrators in support of the “twice-impeached president” did manage to successfully gather outside the federal agency’s offices in Riverside, California, with approximately 50 people convening on Wednesday just two days after the raid adorned with “in Trump we trust” signs and MAGA flags and hats, according to the TV Network CBS.
The far-right backlash to the raid of the one-term president’s home has prompted both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue internal bulletins warning of the possible risk of violence targeting the government employees.
ALSO READ-Justice Dept opposes request to unseal Trump search affidavit