A spokesperson for former President Donald Trump has turned the tables on the Department of Justice (DOJ), accusing it of taking possession of documents and photographs unlawfully, rather than the other way around.
On Monday, the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, executing a search warrant approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The ostensible purpose of the raid was to seize documents the DOJ believes Trump held unlawfully after leaving the White House.
But after reports that the DOJ had seized documents that are protected by attorney-client privilege, and that it opposed the appointment of a “special master” to review those documents; and after Trump claimed that the DOJ had unlawfully taken “passports” in the trove of documents it removed from his residence, the former president is firing back at investigators.
Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for Trump, tweeted: “It is clear that from the seizure of picture books to passports to attorney-client privileged documents, this unprecedented and unnecessary raid has resulted in the DOJ BEING THE ONES in possession of items they have no legal authority to possess.”
It is clear that from the seizure of picture books to passports to attorney-client privileged documents, this unprecedented and unnecessary raid has resulted in the DOJ BEING THE ONES in possession of items they have no legal authority to possess. https://t.co/P4bLy2sAf3
— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) August 15, 2022
As Breitbart News has explained, if the raid is found to have violated Trump’s civil rights under the Fourth Amendment, some or even all of the evidence obtained in the raid could be excluded from use in prosecuting the president in a criminal case.
Update: Budowich continued to assert that the FBI had seized the passports, against reports to the contrary by CBS:
This is how Fake News works, folks. Biden admin actively feeds half truths & lies that the media willingly amplifies—advancing a partisan narrative to attack Trump.@NorahODonnell, did your “source” read you this email? Did you bother asking if they indeed seized the passports? https://t.co/DlzkagN0ie pic.twitter.com/VwCU7DPCvg
— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) August 15, 2022
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
