Attorney General Says ‘Personally Authorized’ Trump House Search – AFR

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday he “personally authorized” the search of Donald Trump’s Florida home and condemned “baseless attacks” on the FBI following the unprecedented crackdown on an ex-president.

Garland did not explain the reason for the search, but stressed there was a “probable cause” and said he had asked a court to release the case’s documents.

“Personally, I concurred with the decision to seek a search warrant on this matter,” he told reporters. “The Ministry does not take such a decision lightly.”

This week’s extraordinary FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence has sparked a political firestorm in an already bitterly divided country and comes as he weighs another White House run.

Leading Republicans have rallied around the former president, who was absent from the raid.

Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, a potential 2024 rival, 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 spread falsehoods that he actually won the 2020 vote.

Trump has also condemned the raid as politically motivated and a Justice Department “weapon”.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States,” Trump said.

Just days after the FBI operation, the 76-year-old was interrogated for four hours Wednesday in the office of Letitia James, the New York State Attorney General investigating the Trump Organization’s business practices.

US media reported that Trump invoked his legal right not to answer questions more than 400 times during this testimony about alleged fraud in his family real estate business.

James suspects that the Trump Organization fraudulently overstated the value of real estate when applying for bank loans, while understating it to tax authorities in order to pay less taxes.

Trump said he had “no choice” but to invoke the Fifth Amendment — which allows individuals to remain silent during questioning — while testifying.

“I have declined to answer questions about the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution,” he said in a statement.

Trump has also faced intense legal scrutiny over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and over his supporters’ Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Garland has been repeatedly pressed about whether the Justice Department is building a case against Trump over the Capitol riots.

More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the 2021 attack on Congress after Trump delivered a fiery speech to supporters near the White House in which he falsely claimed the election was “stolen.”

Trump was impeached for a second historic time by the House of Representatives after the Capitol riot – he was accused of inciting a riot – but was acquitted by the Senate.