Donald Trump, his lawyers, and his allies in Congress and the conservative media have spent the week suggesting that the FBI may have planted evidence when they searched Mar-a-Lago on Monday. It reeked of a defense tactic should the Justice Department have found anything incriminating, and now that The Washington Post has reported they were searching for classified nuclear weapons documents, wouldn’t you know it, Trump is once again suggesting that the information may have been “planted” at Mar-a-Lago.
“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” the former president wrote Friday morning on Truth Social. “Same sleazy people involved. Why wouldn’t the FBI allow the inspection of areas at Mar-a-Lago with our lawyer’s, or others, present. Made them wait outside in the heat, wouldn’t let them get even close – said ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT.’ Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a Christofer Steele Dossier!”
The Washington Post reported on Thursday night that federal agents searched for documents relating to nuclear weapons and other classified intelligence information when they raided Mar-a-Lago on Monday. The report did not include any specifics about the nature of the documents, but David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division, told the Post that the speed at which the warrant was issued suggested that the “material residing unlawfully at Mar-a-Lago may have been classified at the highest classification level.”
We’ll likely know more soon. Attorney General Merrick Garland held a press conference on Thursday to announced that the Justice Department is moving to unseal the search warrant, citing “substantial public interest in this matter.” Trump late Thursday evening wrote on Truth Social that he will “not oppose” the release of the warrant, and even called for its “immediate release.” Trump, of course, has the warrant himself, and has been free to release it this entire time.