by Two senior officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation pushed back the Justice Department’s plans to seek a warrant authorizing a search of former President Donald Trump’s home because they were subject to an investigation by internal watchdogs and congressional committees in the wake of the search of the ex-president’s property feared.
Accordingly The Washington Post, Prosecutors with the Department’s National Security Division have argued for months for an aggressive search of Mr Trump’s property, believing, based on evidence the Department had developed, that the twice-indicted ex-president was unlawfully hoarding classified documents legally owned by the President US Government – ​​Documents that could cause serious harm to national security if disclosed to unauthorized persons.
The post reported that FBI agents involved in the case instead sought to solicit cooperation from Mr. Trump and his attorney, Evan Corcoran, in part for fear of partisan attacks by Republicans of the kind that is tarnishing the bureau’s reputation during investigations into Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and his 2016 opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Back then, both agents and prosecutors understood the need to conduct the investigation, which began in early 2022 after the National Archives and Records Administration seized 15 boxes of state presidential files from Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
After discovering 184 documents with classification marks – 700 pages in all – archives officials officially referred the Justice Department to investigate how such sensitive documents ended up at the disgraced ex-president’s beach club.
According to the Post Office, Prosecutors opened the investigation with two questions in mind: Has Mr. Trump’s preservation of the documents compromised US national security? And did the ex-president have any other secret records in his possession?
Mr Trump’s lawyers sounded the alarm at the FBI when they tried to stop agents from reviewing the documents the archives had brought to their attention because it indicated the ex-president was hiding something.
But as the bureau developed evidence that Mr Trump actually possessed more classified documents and was withholding them from the government, agents pushed for a search warrant request from Jay Bratt, the chief prosecutor for the National Security Department.
The agents prevailed, and the department attempted to use a grand jury subpoena to force Mr Trump to return what he had. Mr Corcoran returned some documents to the department at a meeting with prosecutors in Mar-a-Lago in June, after which the post said “some” FBI agents told prosecutors “they tended to believe that (Mr.) Trump and his team had provided everything the government wanted to protect and said the bureau should drop its criminal investigation.”
But prosecutors directed the FBI to gather more evidence, including surveillance footage of Mar-a-Lago.
In June, footage obtained by subpoena showed Trump’s aides removing boxes from the storage location where records had been located, despite the department’s warning not to move records.
Still, some FBI agents wanted to avoid searching Mr. Trump’s property, fearing involvement could negatively impact her career post called.
The clashes lasted until early August last year, just days before the ministry requested – and received – a search warrant for the ex-president’s home and office.
FBI agents conducted this search on August 8 last year.
