Source: Miami Herald / Getty
The web went into a frenzy as it was revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at the resort of former President Donald Trump in Florida, which he confirmed through a statement.
On Monday evening (August 8th), the former POTUS issued a statement confirming that FBI agents had arrived at his Mar-a-Lago Resort to execute a search warrant. “My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” his statement read, which included the claim: “They even broke into my safe!” According to reports, the agents began their search earlier in the day focusing on the section of the resort complex where his personal quarters and offices are located. The search was conducted in correlation with the ongoing investigation into Trump’s handling of presidential documents brought to Mar-a-Lago, which apparently includes numerous classified documents. Trump himself is currently at his apartment complex in midtown Manhattan, New York.
The news sparked a wave of responses on social media, and Twitter was full of reactions to the FBI’s search. Many pointed out the gravity of the FBI being given the go-ahead to conduct the search, which occurred after representatives from the National Archives had recovered boxes of White House records from Mar-a-Lago in the past few months. The search also occurred on the anniversary of former President Richard W. Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal in 1974.
Jill Wine-Banks, an attorney who was involved in the investigation of former President Nixon, opined that there must be more serious implications to the FBI’s search as well as mounting evidence of crimes.
We talked minutes after the search was public. Later reporting suggests it was because of missing classified documents. They must be important to lead to a judge approving the search warrant and despite claims Trump was cooperating with Archives, he must not have been. https://t.co/b1dXOhyhmQ
— Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) August 9, 2022
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, sent out a few tweets with the hashtag #KarmaBoomerang in response to the news:
Here’s what Trump’s attorneys should be telling him: “when the fbi raids, all you can do is prepare for jail.” No one is above the law! #KarmaBoomerang pic.twitter.com/LC6IuwHLp6
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) August 9, 2022
Journalist Aaron Rupar pointed out Fox News’ ploy of drumming up a fake controversy involving Hunter Biden in response to the news of the raid:
Hunter Biden has been mentioned at least 46 times on Fox News in the few hours since news of the Mar-a-Lago raid broke
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 9, 2022
Former GOP Chairman Michael Steele had some choice words for the Republican politicians and other right-wingers leaping to defend Trump and call for, among other things, “defunding the F.B.I.”.
Trump failed to return classified docs requested by the National Archives. A federal judge issued a search warrant for probable cause of a crime. This is not some rando move by the FBI so you shitforbrains Republicans calling for “defunding the FBI”for once try to be less stupid https://t.co/L9qVLqmwsT
— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) August 9, 2022
Former acting Solicitor General and lawyer Neal Katyal offered up a simple solution to Trump claiming that the search was offensive and abusive.
Search of Trump abusive? Law enforcement leaves a copy of the search warrant, which itemizes what they are looking for and what laws were violated
If Trump/RNC think this search signed off on by a fed judge is abusive & they have nothing to hide,release the warrant to the public
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) August 9, 2022
Hip-Hop icon Ice-T went back to his classic “6 In The Morning” track for his own response to the news.
'6 n the Morning Feds at your door…..'
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) August 8, 2022