Attorney General Merrick Garland stated on Thursday that he “personally approved” the search for records that led to the historic FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida property on Monday.
Garland said the Justice Department has requested a federal magistrate judge to unseal copies of the search warrant and will do so as long as Trump and his legal team do not object in his brief remarks, during which he declined to take any questions.
The motion to make the warrant and receipt public was submitted by the Department, according to Garland, “in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances, and the strong public interest in this subject.”
The foundational tenet of the Justice Department and of our democracy is faithful adherence to the rule of law; preserving the rule of law entails administering the law consistently and without discrimination. That is exactly what the Justice Department is doing under my watch,” he concluded.
Garland acknowledged that copies of the search warrant and FBI property receipt were handed to Trump’s attorneys on Monday and said that they were “on site throughout the search.” She talked for four minutes without taking any questions.
US Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez of South Florida and DOJ counterintelligence head Jay Bratt’s move to unseal the warrant state that although the government had requested that the records be sealed, it now feels that doing so will not “impair judicial functions” going forward.
As a result, “the occurrence of the search and indications of the subject matter involved are already public,” the document adds that officials of the 45th president have already given “public characterizations of the items sought.”
It was unclear right away if Trump’s legal team intended to oppose the move to unseal the materials. Judge Bruce Reinhart had already received many requests from news organizations to make the warrant public, and he had given the DOJ until Monday at 5 p.m. to answer.
Garland’s response prompted Trump to react to him in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying that “My attorneys and representatives were collaborating completely, and very excellent ties had been built.” “If we had it, the government could have had everything they desired.
“They asked us to put an additional lock on a certain area – DONE! Everything was fine, better than that of most previous Presidents, and then, out of nowhere and with no warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 in the morning, by VERY large numbers of agents, and even ‘safecrackers.’ They got way ahead of themselves. Crazy!”
Garland spoke out three days after federal agents spent over nine hours searching Mar-a-Lago — breaking into a safe, scouring former first lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe, and searching a locked basement storage room. From there, the agents removed approximately a dozen boxes of documents and other materials from the White House.
The records reportedly include letters to Trump from his predecessor Barack Obama and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“Much of our work is by necessity conducted out of the public eye,” the AG said in attempting to explain his silence on the raid. “We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations.”
In response to the search, the Attorney General addressed what he called “unfounded accusations” on the FBI and DOJ, stating he “will not stand by passively when their integrity is improperly assaulted.”
“The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants. Every day they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism and other threats to their safety while safeguarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray has declined to comment on the raid, instead bemoaning the rise in potential threats of violence against federal agents this week.
“I’m always concerned about threats to law enforcement,” Wray told reporters Wednesday. “Violence against law enforcement is not the answer, no matter who you’re upset with.”
