The White House ripped Joe Biden after documents declassified by President Donald Trump on Monday revealed internal strife between the former president's Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI's Washington Field Office (WFO) before carrying out a raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022. In the months leading up to the raid, internal emails between FBI agents in the field office expressed frustration that the DOJ, led by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, was unresponsive to their requests and unwilling to consider alternative options to raiding Trump's estate in Palm Beach, Florida a year-and-a-half after he left office after his first term. Fox News Digital exclusively reported on the internal emails, which show the FBI didn't believe it had probable cause to execute the warrant, in December.
"Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple," the White House said Tuesday. "This is further proof the Biden administration weaponized the DOJ to target political opponents. Those responsible must be held accountable." TODD BLANCHE REVEALS DOJ UNEARTHED CACHE OF JACK SMITH DOCUMENTS INSIDE FORGOTTEN ROOM An email dated May 24, 2022 with the subject line "PE (Plasma Echo) Next steps - timeline preference - UNCLASSIFIED," the special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division of the WFO sent an internal email detailing a proposed timeline for the investigation, ending with the execution of a search warrant.
That target date was June 6 of that year. The raid would eventually take place on Aug. 8, 2022. Another agent replied asking the first to loop the DOJ in on the timeline.
What followed was skepticism that the raid was even necessary. "[REDACTED] and I also agreed if there was a way to obtain the records via the [REDACTED], without the execution of the SW (search warrant), it would be preferable," the special agent in charge said. Another batch of internal emails from June 1-2, 2022, shows the FBI seeking a potential off-ramp from the investigation that was heading towards the execution of the raid.
"Even as we continue down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former President's attorney, [REDACTED], ought not to be discounted," the email said. "At a minimum, even if the former President's attorney is correct and that the documents were all declassified (or believed to be declassified), it can be reasonably argued that the documents remain sensitive and should be properly secured until the matter of classification is sorted out. This conversation could easily be accomplished at the same time that WFO presses forward with the investigation and continues building out the search warrant." JACK SMITH'S TRUMP PROBE SWEPT UP FOX NEWS, OTHER MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AS INVESTIGATION WENT BEYOND LAWMAKERS The emails noted that Trump's defense attorneys would likely argue that the president has the absolute authority to declassify documents, expressed frustration that the DOJ, despite being asked, had not provided the FBI with a list of the charges they might file.
An internal email from July 13, 2022, less than a month before the raid, the assistant special agent in charge of the WFO said flatly that the FBI didn't believe their was probable cause for the raid. "WFO does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant at Mar a Lago. DOJ has opined that they do, requesting the a wide scope including residence, office, storage space," that email says.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
