Ex-President Donald Trump said shortly after midnight on Friday that he welcomes the Justice Department’s move to release the search warrant the FBI used in its raid on his Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this week.
In a statement issued by his Save America PAC, Trump announced that he would not object to the unsealing.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me, much as they have done for the last 6 years,” the ex-president said.
“Release the documents now!” he declared at the end of his screed.
The thing is, Trump, who obviously has access to those documents, could do exactly that himself. Like, right now.
It’s unclear why he hasn’t done so.
The ex-president’s statement came in response to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s announcement that the DOJ had filed a motion to unseal the search warrant on Thursday.
“The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing,” the DOJ wrote in the filing.
The FBI’s raid centered on Trump unlawfully stashing boxes of White House records (some of which were allegedly classified) at Mar-a-Lago instead of turning them over to the National Archives at the end of his presidency, as required by law.
Some of the records the FBI agents were looking for were classified documents related to nuclear weapons, according to the Washington Post. However, it’s unknown if the agents successfully found those documents.
