Trump now claims FBI agents seized three of his PASSPORTS during the Mar-a-Lago raid
Donald Trump has warned the FBI and Department of Justice that ‘terrible things’ will happen in the United States if the ‘temperature’ doesn’t come down after the raid on Mar-a-Lago sparked furious criticism at law enforcement.
The former president told Fox News that he has offered to do ‘whatever he can’ to fix the simmering tensions because people are ‘so angry at what is taking place’.
His latest comments come after the FBI warned there have been threats to put ‘dirty bombs’ outside their offices and calls for a civil war have increased since federal agents searched his Florida estate.
Donald Trump on Monday claimed his passports were ‘stolen’ in the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago last week, which would mean he could not leave the country.
He called it an ‘assault on a political opponent.’
‘Wow. In the raid by the FBI or Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never before seen in our country. Third World,’ he wrote on his Truth Social social media account.
He likely has a regular blue passport issued to U.S. citizens and a red ‘diplomatic’ passport issued for official government travel. He would have received a diplomatic passport as president.
But, without a legal passport, Trump would not be able to travel outside of the United States.
It’s unclear what passports were seized, and, if it was done because the former president is considered a flight risk. It’s also unclear if Trump currently has a valid passport in his possession.
Trump’s office did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s inquiry.
His comment that it is an ‘assault on a political opponnet’ reflects a strategy adopted by him and his family, as they have gone on the defense, where they have accused President Joe Biden of having ordered the raid.
The White House said the president found out about the raid from public reports.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said he ‘personally approved’ the raid, which was part of a federal investigation into documents Trump took with him after he left the White House. According to federal law, any presidential records are the property of the federal government.
Garland did not give any additional details about the investigation but said the Justice Department requested the warrant and inventory list be made public due to the high level of public interest in the investigation.
And the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Sunday that President Biden hasn’t been briefed on it at all.
‘Not been briefed. We have not interfered,’ she said on ABC’s This Week.
Trump has been battling back since he announced his Palm Beach residence was raided by federal agents, including warningthe FBI and Department of Justice that ‘terrible things’ will happen in the United States if the ‘temperature’ doesn’t come down.
Trump told Fox News that he has offered to do ‘whatever he can’ to fix the simmering tensions because people are ‘so angry at what is taking place’.
Threats have come against the FBI since the raid was announced. The agency has said there has been warnings of ‘dirty bombs’ outside their offices.
On social media, there has been increased chatter about a civil war.
A New York Times report also revealed over the weekend that a person close to Trump reached out to a DOJ official to pass along a message from the president: ‘The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?’
Trump told Fox News that he had his representatives reach out to the DOJ to offer assistance as outrage in his base ensues over the FBI’s raid on his private residence.
‘People are so angry at what is taking place,’ Trump told Fox when asked about reaching out. ‘Whatever we can do to help—because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.’
He added: ‘The people of this country are not going to stand for another scam.’
During Monday’s raid of Trump’s Florida home, FBI agents took 11 sets of classified documents, photographs and other files marked ‘top secret’ among boxes of items.
In all, FBI agents took 27 boxes of documents, according to the federal warrant.
The inventory of items taken by the agents includes some specific items, including an ‘Executive Grant of Clemency: Re Roger Jason Stone Jr’ – a former Trump adviser who was pardoned in the last days of Trump’s presidency – and ‘info re: President of France.’
The list also includes more generic labels like ‘Various classified/TS/SCI documents.’ In the national security world, the ‘TS/SCI’ abbreviation generally refers to Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information – available only to those with the highest level of clearance.
Also listed are four sets of ‘top secret’ documents, three of ‘secret’ documents and three sets of ‘confidential’ documents, but the receipt offers no further information about what they contained.
Lawyers for Trump insist that as president he had the power to declassify the documents before leaving office.
Trump also has accused the FBI of taking documents that fall under attorney-client priviledge and demanding their return.
‘Oh great! It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged ‘attorney-client’ material, and also ‘executive’ privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,’ Trump said Sunday on Truth Social.
He said that the FBI should consider his post on the alternative social media site his formal request that the documents be returned to his Palm Beach estate.
‘By copy of this TRUTH,’ Trump wrote on Sunday, ‘I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!’
Monday’s raid was part of a longer-running investigation into documents Trump took with him when he left the White House.
Under the Presidential Records Act, all such documents must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of each presidential administration.
The law declared all presidential and vice presidential records property of the federal government, with ‘custody, control and preservation’ of the records delegated to the National Archives when a president leaves office.
Trump returned 15 boxes to the Archives earlier this year. But, on Monday, in a day-long search, agents went through storage space at Mar-a-Lago and areas in Trump’s personal residence, removing more material.