FBI Waited For Specific Time Before Raiding Trump's Mar-a-Lago Estate: Report

OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.

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Republicans and supporters of Donald Trump are still furious over the Biden administration’s decision to send the FBI to raid the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Monday evening.

However, according to a report Tuesday, it appears as though the FBI may have chosen a specific time to conduct the raid in order to save Trump some embarrassment — and even further outrage among his supporters.

Sources who spoke to TMZ said that generally speaking when the FBI executes a search warrant, the subject of the search is placed in handcuffs if they are at the location being searched, whether or not there are altercations between the subject and agents.

Once FBI agents ensure that the location where the search is to be conducted is secure, they then remove the handcuffs from the subject, while going on to prevent him or her from going into the areas being searched, TMZ added, quoting its sources.

But ahead of the raid on Monday, according to the outlet, the FBI took into consideration the political fallout and ramifications of actually placing a former president in handcuffs and thus decided to wait until he was not at Mar-a-Lago to carry out the warrant.

The ex-president was at Trump Tower in New York City on Monday.

Reports said he has been there since he attended his late ex-wife Ivana’s funeral on July 20.

According to Fox News, the raid “was in connection with materials that Trump took with him from his time as president.” The outlet quoted other sources who said the “National Archives and Records Administration referred the case to the Justice Department,” and agents “recovered 15 boxes of classified materials from” Trump’s estate, the outlet continued.

Trump addressed the search on his Truth Social platform after the fact.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” he said.

“It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections,” he added. “Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.”

Other supporters and political leaders offered similar criticism, including Fox News host Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent.

“This is some third-world bullshit right here,” a furious Bongino told fellow Fox host Jesse Watters. “Let me say it again, third-world bullshit. I mean every word of that. I don’t care that it’s cable news.

“I was a federal agent, I raised my right hand. And I swore to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. And I love this country. This is a freaking disgrace. A disgrace. We don’t live in Cuba. We don’t live under Kim Jong Un” of North Korea, he continued.

“We live in a constitutional republic. A representative democracy. You have a bunch of FBI agents raiding the home of a former president because they don’t like his politics? Are you kidding me?” he added.

“This is some third-world garbage that happened tonight,” he continued.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also came to Trump’s aid following the search.

“The raid of MAL [Mar-a-Lago] is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves,” he said on Twitter. “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”

The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) August 9, 2022

“The @FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago is incredibly concerning, especially given the Biden admin’s history of going after parents & other political opponents. This is 3rd World country stuff. We need answers NOW. The FBI must explain what they were doing today & why,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) added.

“The FBI isn’t doing anything about the groups vandalizing Catholic Churches, firebombing Pro-Life groups or threatening Supreme Court justices But they find time to raid Mar A Lago,” Florida’s other senator, Republican Marco Rubio, noted as well.