In the midst of a political storm in the United States between Democrats and Republicans, the Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, affirmed, Thursday, August 11, to have “personally approved” the spectacular search conducted Monday by the FBI at the home of former President Donald Trump in Florida.
During an exceptional press conference, Mr. Garland did not disclose the reasons and the results of this search, but he specified that it had been approved by a federal judge.
Faced with the wave of indignation aroused by this raid among the Republicans, the minister condemned “baseless attacks” against his ministry and the federal police. “I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant for this case”said Mr. Garland, during a short and very rare televised intervention. “The ministry does not take this kind of decision lightly”he assured.
Emphasizing that “ethical obligations” prevented him from detailing the reasons for the raid, Mr. Garland said he asked a Florida judge to lift the confidentiality of the warrant, Mr. Trump having publicly confirmed the search and in view of “the important public interest in this case”.
Republican sympathizers, though known to usually show their support for law enforcement, have criticized the FBI in a virulent way following the raid. What prompted the Association of FBI Agents to qualify “calls for violence against the police” d’“unacceptable”.
“Recent threats contribute to an atmosphere in which some accept, or will accept, violence against law enforcement as appropriate. She is not. This is not a partisan or political issue.”reacted in a press release Brian O’Hare, the president of the association.
Unprecedented
This unprecedented search by the FBI of a former president of the United States took place Monday at the luxury residence of Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Outraged, the 45e US president wrote on his social network Truth Social on Thursday that his lawyers were cooperating “fully” with the authorities when “Suddenly and without warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 a.m., by a VERY large number of officers”. He also complained about the officers having “searched the First Lady’s closets and searched through her clothes and personal effects”leaving them in “a relative mess”. The day before, he had suggested that the FBI might have ” square “ evidence against him during this operation.
Never had a former tenant of the White House been worried by justice in this way. Does the federal police search have to do with the many boxes that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021? Is it linked to the investigation into his responsibility in the assault on the Capitol? Does it rather concern the suspicions of financial fraud of which the Trump Organization is the subject in New York? Mr. Garland did not disclose the reasons for the FBI search. He merely alluded to a « cause probable » justifying the decision of the authorities but without being more explicit.
Under pressure
The Ministry of Justice was under political and media pressure this week to comment on the search. The Republican tenors have united with their former president, who did not recognize his defeat in 2020 and plans to run again in 2024. Former Vice President Mike Pence, himself a possible rival of Donald Trump in two years, shared his “deep concern” after the FBI raid.
The Republican billionaire was also subjected to a hearing under oath, Wednesday, in the office of the Attorney General of New York. But he invoked for four hours more than 440 times his right not to answer questions, under the 5e amendment to the US Constitution, according to US media. According to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Ron Fischetti, quoted by NBC television, the only response his client made was to give his name.
New York State’s highest magistrate, Letitia James, has been investigating since 2019 on suspicion of financial and tax fraud within the Trump Organization family group.