OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon slammed Monday’s raid on the Trump family’s home. He made the remarks on Thursday in an interview with Christina Bobb, the former president’s attorney.
Taking this level of action against a former commander-in-chief has never occurred before in the history of law.
Trump’s former campaign chief and a White House adviser for several months in 2017 warned that Republicans would “incarcerate” the FBI officials who raided Donald Trump’s Florida resort early this week.
According to Newsweek, senior government sources told the publication “after the raid that the FBI took the action based largely on information from a confidential source who was able to identify what classified documents Trump was allegedly still holding in his home and where they were located.”
It was previously reported and acknowledged by Trump that documents required by the National Archives had been taken to his home in Florida. The documents reportedly included highly classified information, some of which were related to national security.
It’s a federal crime to mishandle or improperly remove classified information, but Trump has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he was cooperating with authorities to return the materials.
“Starting in January, we’re going to investigate, we’re going to litigate and, wait for it, we’re going to incarcerate, OK,” Bannon warned. “You are lawless, you’re running this like a Gestapo. You’re going after a president of the United States….Let’s see the affidavit and let’s see it today.”
Steve Bannon says, “starting in January,” Republicans will “incarcerate” those responsible for going after Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Trump lawyer agrees. pic.twitter.com/nAu0z7vbQw
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 11, 2022
According to Bannon, Republican control of the House, as well as the Senate, is expected to be retaken in the November 8 midterm elections. Legislators and leaders in the GOP have already pledged to investigate President Joe Biden’s administration, with some threatening to impeach him.
“The New American Gestapo the FBI and the DoJ [Department of Justice] put themselves in this spot because of corruption, incompetence and malfeasance,” Bannon posted on Gettr Thursday.
“During the War Room segment, Bobb said that the federal authorities resisted showing her the warrant, but FBI and DOJ officials said the warrant and property receipt were provided to Trump’s counsel,” Newsweek added.
“I asked to see the warrant,” Bobb explained. “They gave me a little bit of pushback on that. They made me fight them for it. They made me put my lawyer hat on and use all the reasons why they had to show me the warrant, which they did.
“The affidavit, the probable cause why they are allowed to do this, was sealed, so I wasn’t allowed to see that. I think that’s very telling, that they don’t want people to know what probable cause they have.”
WATCH:
In brief remarks to the press on Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department and FBI from criticism.
“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” he declared, adding that a judge had approved the search warrant and agreed there was probable cause to carry it out.
“Garland also noted that the Justice Department and the FBI had not announced the search or made any press release, suggesting that the agencies had attempted to carry out the raid quietly without media visibility. He noted that Trump was the one who confirmed and reported the raid to the public,” the outlet reported.
Garland reiterated that the warrant and property receipt had been given to Trump’s attorney. He said that the Justice Department has filed a motion for them to be unsealed to the public.
“The department does not take such a decision lightly,” Garland claimed. “Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly, without favor. Under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice department is doing.”
It has been claimed by the White House that Biden was unaware of the raid before it occurred. Their argument was that Biden should not be informed or consulted about such Justice Department decisions.
“Bannon was convicted by a grand jury in July for contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with a subpoena to appear before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol,” Newsweek added.
Trump previously described the raid as part of a partisan “witch hunt” targeting him and his allies. He has argued that he is being politically persecuted and contended that the FBI action is an effort to prevent him from running for president again.
Former President Trump further reacted to the raid on his social media platform Truth Social.
He stated that “In early June, the DOJ and FBI asked my legal representatives to put an extra lock on the door leading to the place where boxes were stored in Mar-a-Lago – We agreed.”
They were shown the secured area, and the boxes themselves. Then on Monday, without notification or warning, an army of agents broke into Mar-a-Lago, went to the same storage area, and ripped open the lock that they had asked to be installed. A surprise attack, POLITICS, and all the while our Country is going to HELL!
Trump said in a post to his Truth Social page early Wednesday morning, “The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, “planting.””
Trump asked: ‘Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out? Obama and Clinton were never ‘raided,’ despite big disputes!’
The former president quoted a New York Post article in two posts about the Obama administration’s handling of White House documents.
“Obama White House lawvers repeatedly invoked the Presidential Records Act to “delay the release of thousands of pages of records from President Bill Clinton’s White House.“”
Trump continued with the quotes:
“At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama trucked 30 million pages of his administration’s records to Chicago, promising to digitize them and eventually put them online – a move that outraged historians. More than five years after Obama’s presidency ended, the National Archives webpage reveals that zero pages have been digitized and disclosed.“
Source: The Republic Brief