Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said FBI agents raiding his Mar-a-Lago home rummaged through former first lady Melania Trump’s clothing and personal items.
It’s not clear if Trump was referring to reports from the New York Post and other media outlets earlier this week, which cited anonymous sources, that claimed the agents went through her personal belongings.
The former first lady has not issued any public statements on the FBI raid. The Epoch Times has contacted spokespersons for the former president.
Approval
Since then, the FBI and Justice Department have remained tight-lipped, having issued no public comments on the search until Attorney General Merrick Garland’s press conference on Thursday afternoon. The attorney general confirmed that he “personally approved” the FBI raid and said his agency is filing a motion to unseal a warrant that was used to search the former president’s property.“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter … the Department does not take such a decision lightly,” Garland said.
“Since I became attorney general, I have made clear that the Department of Justice will speak through its court filings and its work just now,” Garland added. “The Justice Department has filed a motion in the southern district of Florida to unseal a search warrant and property receipt relating to a court-approved search that the FBI conducted earlier this week. That search was a premises located in Florida belonging to the former president.”
A judge in the case, Bruce Reinhart, on Wednesday ordered the Department of Justice to respond to motions to unseal the warrant. Trump’s lawyers and members of his family have told news outlets that FBI agents would not give Christina Bobb, a Trump attorney, copies of the search warrant.
Bobb told The New York Times on Tuesday that she received the warrant. Supporting documentation to the warrant was sealed, she said in another interview.
The Epoch Times has contacted the FBI and DOJ for comment.
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