President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice authorized the FBI to use “lethal force” against his top political rival, President Donald Trump, in the Mar-a-lago documents raid.
That’s according to a court filing by Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Christopher M. Kise. The court document, which is arguing to suppress evidence seized in the “unconstitutional” raid, says “the Mar-a-Lago raid was executed in an egregious fashion and in bad faith.” The motion contains the revelation about lethal force, which they learned through an “Operations Order” produced in discovery.
The order contained a “Policy Statement” regarding “Use Of Deadly Force,” the motion says. That policy statement stated, for example, “‘Law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary . . . .” Id. at USA-01285183. The agents planned to bring ‘Standard Issue Weapon[s],’ ‘Ammo,’ ‘Handcuffs,’ and ‘medium and large sized bolt cutters,’ but they were instructed to wear ‘unmarked polo or collared shirts’ and to keep ‘law enforcement equipment concealed.'”
The FBI did not deny the claim. “The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter,” the FBI told Fox News in a statement Tuesday.
CNN, predictably, tried to soft-pedal the angle, burying it in a lengthy story and writing that the order “also includes boilerplate language from the Justice Department manual about use of force, including the limited circumstances in which agents are authorized to use deadly force.”
Of course, a raid targeting the home of a former president is anything but boilerplate.
The motion says there was no basis “for the FBI to bring firearms into Mar-a-Lago. There were no threats and no risk to agents’ safety arising from their allegations relating to possession of documents at a premises already guarded by the Secret Service.” The motion adds that the agents “improperly seized passports, medical documents, correspondence related to taxes, and accounting information.”
“WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the ‘Icebox,’ and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on May 21. “NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!”
‘A Roving & Highly Inappropriate Search’
The attorneys labeled the raid a “roving and highly inappropriate search” that involved searching former First Lady Melania Trump’s master bedroom suite and the bedroom of Trump’s son, Barron. They did not find any documents there.
Trump is seeking to suppress evidence because he says the raid of Mar-a-Lago is “unconstitutional.” He also argues that there was a “subsequent unlawful violation” of his “attorney-client privilege by the Special Counsel’s Office.”
Trump’s motion says:
On Aug. 8, 2022, “armed FBI agents stormed the private residence of a former president of the United States.”
The motion notes that in August 2022, the FBI did not believe it was necessary to raid Mar-a-Lago.
Steven D’Antuono, the Assistant Director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, had said the FBI’s preference in “dealing with cases like this” was to seek consent, the motion says.
He took that position in emails that have not been produced, according to the motion.
However, in a meeting between the FBI and DOJ, Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toscas said, “he frankly doesn’t give a damn about the optics” of the raid, the motion says. Attorney General Garland personally approved the raid, it adds.
An affidavit for a search warrant contained inaccuracies, saying the investigation began as a result of a referral from NARA on Feb. 9, 2022, and the FBI then opened a criminal investigation, the motion says.
An agent misled the magistrate judge to obtain the warrant, and the warrant lacked the particularity required by the Fourth Amendment, Trump’s lawyers say.
“First, Agent failed to disclose that the FBI had taken the position—in writing, apparently—that it was not necessary to execute a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. D’Antuono’s preference was consistent with DOJ’s handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton where, despite the evidence of extensive evidence deletion, ‘the prosecutors sought to obtain digital and documentary evidence by consent whenever possible,'” the documents say.
“Second, Agent failed to disclose that presidents are not required to obtain clearances and that sensitive briefings including classified information had been provided to President Trump at Mar-a-Lago and other residences before and during his presidency,” it notes. The name of the agent was redacted.
“Third, Agent suggested that the FBI had only initiated its investigation after the sham referral from NARA-OIG on February 9, 2022,” the motion continues.
“Fourth, Agent included in the affidavit the definition of ‘Presidential Records’ from the Presidential Records Act (“PRA”) but omitted the definition of ‘personal records,’ 44 U.S.C. § 2201(3), and the caselaw conferring on President Trump alone the discretion to designate documents as Personal Records,” the lawyers wrote.
“The warrant at issue lacked the particularity required by the Fourth Amendment. Mar-a-Lago is an enormous property, and Agent did not establish a basis for rummaging through the majority of its rooms. In the affidavit, Agent described the property as a ’17-acre estate,’ which includes a ‘mansion with approximately 58 bedrooms’ and ’33 bathrooms,'” the motion says.
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