Donald Trump has been mocked online after he said he was subject to a search on his Mar-A-Lago address. The raid would have been approved by the very same FBI director he appointed.
The former US president issued a statement late on Monday night attacking FBI boss Christopher Wray and the US Justice Department for the raid, which he said had been “not necessary or appropriate” and noted that "Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before."
"These are dark times for our nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents," Mr Trump wrote.
On social media, many critics ridiculed the former president for claiming the raid had been carried out by a “weaponised” Justice Department under the influence of Democrats “who desperately don’t want me to run for president in 2024”.
Many Twitter users noted that Mr Trump himself had appointed Mr Wray as FBI director in June 2017 — a fact that directly challenged his allegations of an “attack by Radical Left Democrats”.
“The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago. Chris Wray is the Director of the FBI. Donald Trump appointed Chris Wray. My schadenfreude can’t take much more of this,” tweeted the anti-GOP campaign group The USA Singers.
Keith Edwrds, the communications director for Florida’s Democrat agricultural commissioner Nikki Fried, added: “Trump has every right to be upset at the person who appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray”.
Retired US Air Force Col Moe Davis tweeteed: “Interestingly, FBI Director Chris Wray was appointed by (checks notes) Donald Trump and confirmed by (checks notes again) every Republican member of the Senate”.
Others appeared to ridicule conservative radio host Jesse Kelly who tweeted on Monday night: “Trump has every right to be livid about this gross violation of his rights. He should be extra mad at whoever put Christopher Wray in charge of the FBI.”
It was unclear if the radio host’s remarks were a joke.
FBI agents were believed to have executed the search warrant earlier on Monday in connection with a long-running Justice Department investigation into Mr Trump’s possible mishandling of White House files.
The probe came months after the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of classified information that Mr Trump had allegedly taken with him after leaving office without proper authorisation.
The archive then asked the Justice Department to investigate, leading to the execution of a search warrant on Mar-A-Lago which would have required authorisation by top officials in the Justice Department and FBI, whose director Mr Trump appointed in office in June 2017.
Mr Wray was appointed with Mr Trump calling the former attorney “a man of impeccable credentials” after he dismissed former FBI director James Comey for his response to allegations of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 US election.
