The raid that the FBI carried out this Monday at the residence of Donald Trump in Florida keeps American politics on edge waiting to know why the former president is being investigated and what consequences this case will have for him. The criminal intelligence agency still does not explain the reasons why it sent its agents to search Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach club where Trump’s residence is located, although local media such as the Washington Post ensure that the action is part of an investigation to determine whether the Republican tycoon took classified documents from the White House at the end of his term in 2021at a time when he faces two other legal cases and aspires to fight for a second term in 2024.
While awaiting any details or official explanation, many Republican leadersincluding party address, attacked this Tuesday against the “abuse of power” of the Democrats. And from Joe Biden’s party they remembered, for their part, that if there was a search, it is because there is an order signed by a judge. Trump, for his part, pleads not guilty and considers himself the target of a witch hunt.
From the White House they assure that President Biden was not aware of the search and found out from the media, and emphasize that this research is “independent”. In her daily press conference, the president’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, avoided giving details about an investigation that is being carried out” and, consulted about the accusations of political persecution made by the Republicans, replied that “Biden respects the State of law”. Although in his public acts this Tuesday Biden did not speak directly about Trump, in the morning he gave a message that seemed directed at the former president, when criticized those who “seek power” against those who “bet on unity”.
“Anarchy and Witch Hunt”
After the unprecedented record, many Republican leaders underlined their outrage and their support for Trumpwho for his part took the opportunity to intensify his fundraising campaign. “Anarchy, political persecution and witch hunts must be exposed and stopped”said the former president between 2017 and 2021, who in an email stressed that “something like this had never happened to a president of the United States before.”
“Now, as they see my endorsed candidates get big wins and see my dominance in every poll, they’re trying to stop me and the republican party one more time“added Trump, who was not present during the search. In the morning, as on Monday night, supporters of the former president approached the vicinity of Mar-a-Lago, the lavish home and social club facing the Atlantic of Trump, to show with banners and posters of the 2020 election campaign his rejection of registration.
Strong Republican support
Many of those protesters echoed the words of the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, wondering why Hunter Biden, the president’s son and accused by Republicans of corruption, is not being investigated in the same way. “The raid at Mar-a-Lago is another escalation in the arming of federal agencies against political opponents of the regime (referring to the Biden administration), while people like Hunter Biden are treated with kid gloves,” said DeSantis, a political ally of Trump and a possible contender for the Republican nomination in 2024.
Along the same lines, the leader of the conservatives in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthydenounced a “intolerable instrumentalization for political ends” of the Department of Justice and promised an investigation into its operation as soon as the Republicans return to power. Trump was even defended by his former right-hand man Mike Pence, possibly rivals in the Republican primaries ahead of the 2024 presidential elections. and with whom the former president was at odds since the episode of the assault on the Capitol. “I share the deep concern of millions of Americans over the unprecedented search of President Trump’s personal residence,” the former vice president tweeted.
If there was a search, there was a judge’s order
According to different media outlets, the search of the house is related to the search for documents that Trump supposedly extracted from the White House, and among which there would be classified material that he took with him instead of turning it over to the historical archive as required by law. This Tuesday the majority leader of the House of Representatives, the Democrat Nancy Pelosisaid in statements to the MSNBC network that he does not have more information than that in the public domain, but pointed out that the federal authorities will have a justification to proceed with the registration since “no one is above the law, not even a president or former president of the united states”.
The Department of Justice has been investigating the mishandling of classified information for several months, after the National Archives and Records Administration revealed it had recovered 15 boxes of White House records from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. This investigation against Trump is added to another that tries to determine if the billionaire and his allies are responsible for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when a mob of his followers instigated by himself broke in to prevent the results of the November 2020 elections from being validated. In addition, a prosecutor from Fulton, Georgia, is investigating whether Trump and his allies tried to interfere in the elections in that state, which ultimately gave Biden a narrow victory.