Political storm after search of Trump’s Florida home
The search carried out by the FBI at the home of Donald Trump caused a reaction across the Atlantic. Supporters of the former president denounce persecution.
Supporters of the former president gathered this Tuesday in Florida to denounce the search.
AFP
A first step towards a trial for some, “political persecution” for others: the spectacular search of Donald Trump’s home by the FBI on Tuesday shed new light on the deep fractures of America, at a time when the ex-president ostensibly flirts with a new candidacy.
Never had a former tenant of the White House been worried by justice in this way. Does the federal police search have to do with the many boxes that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021? Is it related to the investigation into his responsibility in the assault on the Capitol? Does it rather relate to the suspicions of financial fraud of which the Trump Organization is the subject in New York? Contacted by AFP, the FBI declined to comment.
Donald Trump, who claims his innocence in each of these cases and claims to be the subject of a witch hunt, strongly denounced the search, which he did not attend, in a press release. “Our nation is living through dark days”, he regretted, assuring that “this unannounced search of (his) home was neither necessary nor appropriate”.
Trump se peint en martyr
“Nobody is above the law (…) not even a former president”, retorted Tuesday on NBC the Democratic president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi – who, like most of the other tenors of her camp, has been calling for years to hold the ex-real estate mogul to account. The day after the federal police operation, elected Republican Scott Perry announced that FBI agents had seized his phone, without this ally of Donald Trump specifying the reason.
“This morning, while I was traveling with my family, three FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” he told Fox News, denouncing “sort of tactics worthy of a republic banana.” The judicial escalation seems to have at the same time cemented the hold of Donald Trump on the Republican Party, which has united around the former businessman – to the point of setting him up as a martyr.
“Civil war”
As soon as the search was announced, a group of supporters of Donald Trump went to the luxurious residence of the former businessman to shout their anger. Several of them were waving “Biden is not my president” flags, yet another reminder that more than a year and a half after Donald Trump was defeated in the election, tens of millions of Americans remain firmly convinced that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him.
On social networks, some Trumpists purely and simply called for “divorce” on Tuesday, in this country with divisions so gaping that they may seem irreconcilable. “These are the kinds of things that happen in countries in civil war,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene, an elected representative from Georgia known for her excesses, even calling for the dismantling of the FBI. “Political persecution MUST STOP!!!” His camp could regain control of Congress in the November legislative elections, which promise to be perilous for Joe Biden’s camp.
Springboard for 2024?
Denouncing an “intolerable instrumentalization for political purposes” of the Department of Justice, the leader of the conservatives in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, promised an investigation into its functioning if the Republicans returned to power. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday categorically dismissed the possibility that Joe Biden had been informed in advance of the search at his former (and potential future) rival in the presidential election.
“President Biden has been very clear, before he was elected and since the start of his term, that the Department of Justice conducts its investigations independently. He believes in the rule of law,” she said. Donald Trump, who could at any time declare himself a candidate for a new term, has in any case jumped at the chance to launch a new appeal for the generosity of his supporters.
“It wasn’t just my home that was attacked – it was the home of every patriotic American I fought for,” he pleaded in an email to his activists, suggesting a solution. donation of 5 to 5000 dollars to fight a “witch hunt”.
AFP
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