Donald Trump sent a shockwave of epic proportion around the world when he put out a statement at about 7 p.m. on Monday, August 8, saying agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were raiding his house at Mar-a-Largo.
“These are dark times for our nation, as my beautiful home … is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in the statement.
The FBI is investigating Trump for a potential Espionage Act violation and possible obstruction of justice, according to the warrant used to raid the president’s home.
According to the Guardian, over 30 FBI agents, armed with a search warrant issued by a federal magistrate from West Palm Beach, stormed the former president’s home.
“After working and cooperating with the relevant government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump said.
The raid began at about 6:30 a.m. and lasted over nine hours. “They started ransacking an office, ransacking a closet,” Eric Trump, who alerted his father to the ongoing search, said in an interview with Sean Hanity on Fox News. “They broke into a safe! He didn’t have anything in the safe.”
The initial shock soon turned into rage, with several prominent Republicans condemning the raid as the Biden administration weaponizing the Justice Department against a potential political opponent in the 2024 presidential election. The younger Trump added that the raid was only a political persecution of his father.
“They want to attack a guy who they view as his greatest threat, Biden’s greatest threat,” Eric said.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy also reacted to the news, vowing to investigate if the GOP takes back the house in the November midterm elections.
“Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” McCarthy said in a statement on Monday night.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida reacted to the situation on Twitter, saying, “Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships but never before in America.”
The raid has led many to question the Justice Department’s double standards in its handling of Trump vis-a-vis Hilary Clinton and President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
In a letter sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray three days after the raid, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley filed a list of questions asking why the FBI is giving Hunter preferential treatment.
“Whistleblowers have alleged to my office that the FBI gave preferential treatment to the Biden family by shutting down investigative activity and sources with respect to potentially criminal information on Hunter Biden,” Grassley wrote in the letter.
Hunter is currently under federal investigation for his taxes, potential money laundering, and possible foreign lobbying violations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act tied to his foreign business dealings. Despite mounting damning evidence of wrongdoings on Hunter’s part, the Justice Department has not conducted a raid or brought any charges against the president’s son.
“It’s indisputable that when Democrats do wrong there are no arrests or charges and they are handled with kid gloves . . . Yet everyone in Trump’s orbit gets charged,” says Professor Nicholas Giordano, an ex-catastrophic-planning official in New York state’s Office of Emergency Management.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) also claimed that the raid, when contrasted with the DOJ’s handling of Hunter, will reveal that the FBI “is selective and politicized.”
According to a CNN report, the department’s refusal to bring charges against Hunter is because of the DOJ’s guidelines that generally avoid bringing politically sensitive cases close to an election. Either the department forgot about those guidelines when they chose to raid the former president’s home, or Trump’s case just wasn’t politically sensitive enough. He’s only a former president, right?
The FBI’s raid on the home of the former president sets a precedent that has opened the door for Republicans to go after Hunter over his foreign deals if they take back the house in November.
Prior to the raid, GOP members had vowed to hold a congressional hearing into Hunter’s foreign dealings and finances if they take back the majority in the house. The hearings could even implicate the current president, as many have thought of him as Hunter’s mysterious partner referred to as “The Big Guy” in his famous laptop leak.
“We’re going to have a great hearing early on the potential wrongdoing within the Biden family,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who is set to chair the Oversight Committee if Republicans win the majority, said in an interview. “The fear is that these shady business dealings have compromised the president.”
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), a member of the Oversight Committee, which is expected to take the lead on a House inquiry into Hunter Biden, echoed Comer’s sentiments saying, “Obviously, you start with Hunter … but it appears as though the president is involved as well, and it’s something you’re going to have to look into.”
When Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) conducted a joint probe of Hunter Biden just before the 2020 election, fellow Republicans warned about the likelihood of unintentionally spreading Russian disinformation.
The raid on Trump’s home has set such a precedent that those same Republicans that chose to err on the side of caution heading into the 2020 election would not think twice about going after Hunter, as they already plan to conduct a more thorough look at the First Son’s financial and foreign dealings, including his art sales.
Comer revealed that the Republicans would look at Hunter’s work in China and an ethics agreement surrounding Hunter’s art sales that have been questioned by even Obama-era officials who were supposed to be allies of the Bidens.
As far as this precedent goes, Biden’s Justice Department is leaving the door open for Trump’s (if he runs and wins in 2024) to go after Hunter and, potentially, President Biden.
“If Trump gets elected [president], the first thing he’ll do is raid every one of Biden’s houses,” said Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
