Trump Camp Maintains They Were 'Cooperating Fully' With the FBI Prior To Raid

Brittany M. Hughes | August 11, 2022
DONATE
Text Audio
00:00 00:00
Font Size

 

Responding to allegations by Attorney General Merrick Garland that there was no other way the FBI could have obtained the documents they were seeking from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home without executing a surprise search warrant and going through the house, Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and campaign advisor, denied any breakdown in communication between Trump and the FBI that could have led to such extreme – and historically unprecedented – measures.

In his statements, Garland said that the FBI "does not take such a decision lightly" in raiding a home, adding that, “Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search, and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken.”

But Lara Trump says that wasn't true in the former president's case.

“To our knowledge, there was nothing more we could have done. There was nothing that happened in the interim," she told Fox News' Martha McCallum, saying Trump's staff had been working with the FBI to turn over any necessary documents.

Lara Trump added that her father-in-law and his staff complied with the FBI’s previous request to secure the room that housed the documents in question while the issue of ownership was being hashed out, and that nothing more happened between then and the raid that justifies breaching into the former president’s home unannounced.

Related: Garland Blasts 'Unfounded' FBI Criticism: 'I Will Not Stand By Silently While Their Integrity Is Unfairly Attacked'

“Trump told them, ‘Anything you need, let me know,’” she claimed.

Trump repeated that claim on his social media website Truth Social, writing, “My attorneys and representatives were cooperating fully, and very good relationships had been established.”

The 45th president reiterated that his staff put locks on the doors the FBI had requested, and suggested that was the last communication they had with the feds before the surprise raid.

Legal experts have pointed out that one of the biggest questions surrounding the raid is the fact that the FBI had multiple avenues to obtain documents short of executing an unannounced search, and that such a move could- or rather should - have only been carried out under the most extreme circumstances.

donate