What was the FBI looking for in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate?
Raid on former president’s Florida home described as ‘extraordinary, historic development’
An FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate has prompted outrage among Republicans.
The former US president issued a statement saying that his home in Florida’s Palm Beach was “under siege” after agents began the unannounced raid on Monday.
Trump, who was in New York, said the move was “not necessary or appropriate”, adding: “These are dark times for our nation.” The agents, who had a legally authorised warrant, also broke into the former president’s safe.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What did the papers say?
Searching the home of a former US leader is “an extraordinary, historic development” and has “set off a political uproar he could use to stoke his likely 2024 White House bid”, said CNN’s White House correspondent Stephen Collinson.
The raid marks “one of the most staggering twists yet in the story of Trump”, who has already been impeached twice, and threatens to “inject new toxins into the political life of a nation that is hopelessly divided”, Collinson added.
Former CIA officer Buck Sexton told Fox News that it was a “chilling moment in the country’s history”. The FBI was sending a message to Trump and his supporters “that they will come for you if you stand against the machine”, he claimed.
“Well, no,” responded Philip Bump in The Washington Post. The message is actually “that federal criminal investigators had sufficient evidence to convince a judge that evidence of a crime existed at Mar-a-Lago”, he argued.
That the search “instantly became entangled with politics” was “inevitable”, but “there is no reason to think the FBI’s action was triggered by politics”, said Bump, amid reports that aides of President Joe Biden first heard about the raid on Twitter.
The search “appeared to be focused” on material that Trump took to Mar-a-Lago when he left the White House, said The New York Times (NYT).
“Boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents,” the paper reported. Trump delayed the return of 15 boxes requested by the National Archives “for many months” and the case was “referred to the Justice Department by the archives early this year”.
What next?
The law on preserving White House materials “lacks teeth”, said the NYT, “but criminal statutes can come into play, especially in the case of classified material”.
Under these statutes, anyone who “willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates or destroys” government documents can be prosecuted and face jail time.
All the same, a law enforcement organisation raiding the home of the sitting president’s predecessor and potential future opponent “has no close parallel in American history”, said National Review’s online editor Philip Klein.
Given the implications, the FBI “better have had a really good reason to search Trump’s property”, Klein continued. If it turns out they didn’t, it will make the political system “much more unstable – and should be alarming to anybody, no matter their personal feelings about Trump or his statements and actions”.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Good riddance to the televised presidential debate'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Caitlin Clark the No. 1 pick in bullish WNBA Draft
Speed Read As expected, she went to the Indiana Fever
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 16, 2024
Cartoons Tuesday's cartoons - sleepyhead, little people, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Trump criminal trial starts with rulings, reminder
Speed Read The first day of his historic trial over hush money payments was mostly focused on jury selection
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Is animal cruelty getting worse?
Today's big question A new report has revealed a sickening trend of catapult animal killings shared on WhatsApp, and incidence of harming pets is rising
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Why are kidnappings in Nigeria on the rise again?
Today's Big Question Hundreds of children and displaced people are missing as kidnap-for-ransom 'bandits' return
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
What is the new definition of extremism?
Today's Big Question Michael Gove on a mission to 'push for more stringent measures to tackle extremism in the UK'
By The Week UK Published
-
Haiti's mass jailbreak: what do gang leaders want?
Today's Big Question Gangs hope violence will bring down Prime Minister Ariel Henry amid a growing security and economic 'nightmare'
By The Week UK Published
-
Can the UK's knife crime 'epidemic' be tamed?
Today's Big Question Fatal stabbings are on the rise but campaigners are divided over punitive threats vs. public health interventions
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Ex-US diplomat confessed spying for Cuba to undercover agent, FBI says
Speed Read DOJ says former US ambassador Manuel Rocha perpetrated 'one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent'
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Daniel Khalife escape: how secure are UK prisons?
Today's Big Question MPs and experts blame austerity cuts for chronic understaffing, overcrowding and inexperienced guards
By Harriet Marsden Published