New documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that the Biden White House played a significant role in the FBI raid on the Palm Beach, Florida home of former President Donald Trump.
This latest revelation contradicts previous statements from White House and other administration officials who told both the media and Congress they were unaware of missing documents sought by the National Archives and had no involvement in the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the matter.
A complete history of the saga involving the classified documents found at Mar-a-lago can be found here: Justice Department Inquiry
According to hundreds of pages of documents received by America First Legal (AFL), the FBI obtained access to National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) files connected to Trump through a “special access request” from the Biden White House on behalf of the Justice Department.
An e-mail from NARA general counsel Gary M. Stern confirms this, while adding that White House lawyers were offered the opportunity to view the documents directly, though it was deemed they were too sensitive to be removed from NARA’s secure facility.
The “Biden White House and DOJ coordinated to obtain the Trump records and perhaps create a pretext for the law enforcement raid,” AFL stated amid the publication of the report.
The document disclosure means that Biden administration officials lied to the American people and possibly committed perjury by lying to at least one member of Congress, saying they had no involvement in the DOJ investigation that led to the raid on Mar-a-Lago.
On Aug. 8, 2022, the day of the FBI raid, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that White House officials had no advanced notice of the raid or investigation that preceded it.
“The president was not briefed, was not aware of it, no. No one at the White House was given a heads-up,” Jean-Pierre said. “We learned about this just like the American people did.”
The e-mails released by AFL show that this statement was a lie.
In a letter dated Aug. 16, 2022, Debra Wall, Acting Archivist of the United States, told Rep. Michael Turner, Ranking member of U.S. House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, that “the DOJ has been exclusively responsible for all aspects of this investigation, and NARA has not been involved in the DOJ investigation or any searches that it has conducted.” The e-mails released by AFL contradict this statement, and there was no mention of the fact that the White House spearheaded the effort.
On Aug. 24, 2022, President Joe Biden told reporters during a press conference that he “didn’t have any advance notice. None. Zero. Not one single bit.” However, the newly released documents confirm his office was behind the investigation by way of the special access request.
“The evidence suggests that the ostensibly nonpartisan National Archives and Records Administration misled Congress about the Biden White House’s responsibility for the FBI’s raid of former President Trump’s home,” Sid Reed Rubenstein, Sr. Counselor and Director of Oversight for AFL, said in the report about the newly published documents. “The evidence further suggests that Biden officials in the Executive Office of the President and the Department of Justice unlawfully abused their power and then lied about it to the American people. This government, it seems, acknowledges no limits on its power to harass, intimidate, and silence its political opponents.”
