Report: FBI Agents Wanted to Close Trump Documents Probe, but DOJ and FBI Leaders Pushed for a Raid
Kristina Wong 2 Mar 2023
Some Federal Bureau of Investigations field agents wanted to shut down the probe into suspected documents held by former President Donald Trump as early as June, but Justice Department leaders pushed for and ultimately got a surprise raid on Mar-a-Lago in August, according to a report.
According to the Washington Post, FBI officials and the DOJ clashed fiercely over how to handle recovering suspected classified documents from Trump, with FBI agents arguing for a cooperative approach and the DOJ pushing for the unprecedented raid on a former president’s home.
The aggressive approach was starkly different than the cooperative one the DOJ and FBI have taken towards classified documents held by President Joe Biden at his former office at the Penn Biden Center office in D.C. and his home garage in Delaware.
According to the Post, two senior FBI officials argued a raid would be “too combative” and proposed to seek Trump’s permission first, but DOJ prosecutors argued that Trump was “knowingly concealing secret documents” at Mar-a-Lago and pushed the FBI to conduct a surprise raid.
Even before the raid on August 8, 2022, FBI agents in the Washington field office as early as May wanted to slow the probe into the suspected classified documents and some wanted to shut down the investigation altogether in early June, after corresponding with Trump’s legal team.
The FBI agents reportedly worried that investigating a former president would face political blowback, but federal prosecutors in the DOJ’s national security division — the same one that oversaw the investigation into the Russia collusion hoax — argued for an aggressive approach.
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/03/02/report-fbi-agents-wanted-close-trump-documents-probe-doj-fbi-leaders-pushed-raid/
