The FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022, but did it anyway after pressure from then-President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, according to newly uncovered emails.
Emails released by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office show that officials at the FBI and DOJ communicated about FBI concerns about the warrant in the months leading up to the August raid.
In one June 1 email an unidentified FBI assistant special agent in charge wrote to FBI official Anthony Riedlinger, “Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents.”
“[FBI Washington Field Office] has been drafting a Search Warrant affidavit related to these potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information is single source, has not been corroborated, and may be dated. DOJ CES opines, however, that the SWs meet the probable cause standard.” The same agent described the “potential boxes” as “presumably of the same type as were sent back to NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] in January.”
Notably, the unnamed FBI official said that while they “continue[d] down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former President’s attorney (stating that the FBI and DOJ are readying a search warrant, and have developed information that there are more documents at Mar a Lago), ought not to be discounted.”
A separate email (sent weeks after the aforementioned, on July 13) to Robert Stuart Sinton, Lisa R. Gentilcore, and Anthony Riedlinger from a redacted official states: “We haven’t generated any new facts, but keep being given draft after draft after draft. Absent a witness coming forward with recent information about classified on site, at what point is it fair to table this?”
Another email dated July 29 noted that the scope of the search was being “widened.”
Another redacted email sent on July 20 shows the FBI’s Washington Field Office did “not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES) that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar a Lago. DOJ has opined that they do have probable cause, requesting a wide scope including residence, office, storage space. … Continued investigation and additional interviews have not found any witness who has reported seeing classified records at Mar a Lago since the return of records via [Redacted] compliance on June 3, 2022.”
In fact, FBI officials were purportedly worried about the optics of executing such an uncertain search warrant.
According to an Aug. 4 email from an unidentified agent, then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toscas said in a meeting that he “frankly doesn’t give a damn about the optics” of the search warrant despite concerns of FBI officials and their apparent desire to execute the warrant in “a professional, low key manner.”
“I understand that this request may not go well at DOJ, however, it is FBI serving and executing the search and it will be our personnel who will have to deal with the reaction to that first contact,” the email from the unidentified agent reads.
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. Special Counsel Jack Smith then brought charges against Trump stemming from the raid as part of Democrats’ “get-Trump” lawfare. Smith alleged Trump mishandled classified documents. Smith’s prosecution against Trump was dismissed last July after Judge Aileen Cannon found his appointment unconstitutional, as then-Attorney General Merrick Garland lacked the authority to appoint Smith.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
