The US Attorney General did not give a reason for the search of Donald Trump’s home in Florida.
Washington:
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Thursday that he had “personally approved” the search of Donald Trump’s Florida home, and condemned “baseless attacks” on the FBI following unprecedented crackdowns against a former president.
Garland did not give a reason for the discovery, but insisted there was a “probable cause” and said he had asked the court to make the documents of the case public.
“I have personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this case,” he told reporters. “The department does not take such a decision lightly.”
The extraordinary FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence this week has sparked political fire in an already divided country and comes as he weighs in on another White House run.
Prominent Republicans have rallied around the former president, who was not present at the time of the raid.
Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, a potential 2024 opponent, expressed “deep concern” and said the raid smacks of “partisanship” by the Justice Department.
Garland criticized “baseless attacks on the professionalism of FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors”.
Since leaving office, Trump has remained the country’s most divisive figure and a force in the Republican Party, continuing to lie that he had indeed won the 2020 vote.
Trump has called the raid politically motivated and a “weaponization” of the Justice Department.
Trump said, ‘This has never happened to any President of America before.
The 76-year-old was questioned on Wednesday for four hours at the Manhattan office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, just days after an FBI operation who is investigating the Trump Organization’s business practices.
US media reported that Trump exercised his legal right not to answer questions more than 400 times during that statement about alleged fraud in his family real estate business.
James suspects that the Trump Organization fraudulently inflated the value of real estate properties when applying for bank loans, while underreporting them to pay less in taxes with tax officials.
Trump said he had “no choice” but to invoke the Fifth Amendment — which allows individuals to remain silent during questioning — during the statement.
“I refuse to answer questions under the rights and privileges granted to every citizen under the Constitution of the United States,” he said in a statement.
Trump has also faced intense legal scrutiny for his attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Garland has been repeatedly pushed over whether the Justice Department is building a case against Trump over the Capitol riot.
More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the 2021 attack on Congress, which came after Trump made a fiery speech to his supporters near the White House, claiming the election was “stolen”.
Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot – he was accused of inciting rebellion – but was acquitted by the Senate.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)