Less than a day after a federal judge ordered the appointment of a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, there was a convenient leak to The Washington Post. It alleged that among the various items taken by the FBI in the raid was “a document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.”
Experiencing déjà vu? Yeah, you should be.
When we first heard about the raid, we were told that the FBI was after classified documents Trump allegedly took from the White House in violation of the Presidential Records Act. The problem with that narrative was, according to former Trump administration official Kash Patel, that the documents were declassified before Trump even took office. And there was also the tiny little detail that the Presidential Records Act isn’t a criminal statute.
Very quickly, the raid that was supposed to make Trump look guilty appeared to be a blatant abuse of power by the administration of Trump’s past and potentially future political opponent. It made no sense for the FBI to raid Mar-a-Lago instead of simply requesting the documents they seemed to know were there.
Then it was leaked to The Washington Post (huh, fancy that!) that Trump had kept top-secret nuclear documents at Mar-a-Lago. That story was laughed at — at least by serious people — and showed that justification for the raid was evolving to contain the fallout.
Related: New Evidence of Biden’s Role in the FBI Raid of Trump’s Home
Since then, polls have shown that the raid backfired on Biden. It was meant to end Trump’s career but instead boosted his prospects for a comeback. Evidence of a cover-up piled up, and the administration wasn’t helped by the ridiculously redacted affidavit or the horribly staged photo of empty folders and Time magazine covers on the floor.
Now, after a couple of legal and public relations wins for Trump, we get a new leak essentially regurgitating the previous outlandish claim — a claim that Trump has denied. This doesn’t exactly improve the FBI’s or the Justice Department’s image. In fact, it raises serious questions about the bureau’s intentions. If they were truly concerned about these documents, why did they let them stay at Mar-a-Lago for 18 months? We recently learned that months before the raid, the Department of Justice ordered Trump to keep his records indefinitely “preserved in that room” at Mar-a-Lago, despite the fact that it deemed Mar-a-Lago not to have the means to properly secure classified information.
Coincidentally, the FBI unit responsible for the raid is the same unit responsible for the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation. We also know that the Biden White House collaborated directly with the Department of Justice and the National Archives to initiate the criminal investigation into the alleged mishandling of classified documents by Trump and to deny his claims of executive privilege. All of this points to an elaborate conspiracy to entrap Donald Trump, perhaps to embroil him in a criminal investigation that would undermine a potential 2024 presidential bid.
In the end, this ridiculous leak is the very reason why U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon halted the investigation and ordered a special master appointed.
