Trump Responds to Filings Unsealed in Classified Docs Case

Facts

• Court filings released Tuesday revealed that the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) authorized FBI agents to use 'deadly force' during their Aug. 8, 2022 raid of former Pres. Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in search of classified documents.¹
• The newly unsealed filing contained an 'operations order' detailing how agents were allowed to conduct their raid and what they were allowed to bring. The DOJ says'deadly force' is in line with its manual on the use of force and with standard practices.²
• The order also reveals that the FBI's stated objective was to 'seize' the documents and information described in special counsel Jack Smith's search warrant.³
• In a fundraising email sent after the unsealing, the Trump campaign accused Pres. Joe Biden of putting Trump's family in danger. The presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 election also called the search 'Illegal and UnConstitutional' in a post on his Truth Social platform.⁴
• The FBI issued a rare statement, saying that it used the same protocols it uses for all search warrants. DOJ policy says that deadly force is only permitted when an officer has a reasonable belief that life is in imminent danger of death or physical harm.⁵
• Meanwhile, another new filing revealed that more classified documents were found at Mar-a-Lago in the months following the initial search. Trump's South Florida trial is unlikely to begin until after November's election.⁶

Sources: ¹New York Post, ²CNN, ³FOX News, ⁴Forbes, ⁵NBC and ⁶BBC News.

Narratives

• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by The Gateway Pundit. The FBI's unconstitutional raid of the former president's residence seemed unfairly violent on the surface. This filing shows how far the Biden administration and the Democratic Party were willing to go to try to derail Trump's return to the White House. Now it's more difficult to deny this is a political witch hunt.
• Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by Salon. Unsurprisingly, Trump and his campaign are blowing the wording in this filing out of proportion to deceive the public and play the victim. The FBI has already demonstrated it conducted its search in adherence with standard DOJ protocols. But Trump is trying to play up his victim status in order to drum up more fundraising.

Predictions