In the latest attempt to portray himself as the victim of political persecution, former President Donald Trump posted Tuesday evening on Truth Social that "Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE" in the search for classified documents at his Florida home.
The search, part of a Department of Justice investigation into Trump's allegedly intentional mishandling of government records, including national security information, uncovered over 13,000 files stashed away in his private club.
Trump's post came after a filing by his legal team, made public earlier Tuesday, that highlighted the FBI's authorization to use deadly force in its August 2022 raid. U.S. Judge Aileen Cannon also unsealed documents that provided additional details on the raid, revealing that Trump's attorneys found more classified documents hidden in his bedroom following the FBI search.
Trump's campaign also sent an email to supporters asserting that Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out."
The FBI, which is led by a Trump appointee, issued a rare statement to refute the claim, clarifying that they "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 protocol, posted on the FBI's website, stipulates that agents may use deadly force only "when the agent has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the agent or another person."
FBI agents carried out their search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022 without any violence or presence of helicopters and armored vehicles. That fact has not stopped Trump's Republican allies from echoing his false statements, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claiming that the DOJ and FBI were "planning to assassinate Pres. Trump and gave the green light."
