Former President Donald Trump hinted on Friday at the possibility of taking legal action in response to the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago property last week.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that a “major motion” related to the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures will soon be filed related to the search, arguing that his rights have been violated at a level “rarely seen” before.
“A major motion pertaining to the Fourth Amendment will soon be filed concerning the illegal Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago, right before the ever important Mid-Term Elections,” Trump’s post read. “My rights, together with the rights of all Americans, have been violated at a level rarely seen before in our Country. Remember, they even spied on my campaign. The greatest Witch Hunt in USA history has been going on for six years, with no consequences to the scammers. It should not be allowed to continue!”
Trump’s post comes after a federal judge said on Thursday that he might be willing to unseal parts of an affidavit that was used to establish probable cause for the FBI to search the Palm Beach, Fla., property. Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the Department of Justice to provide a redacted version of the affidavit, and he will review the proposed redactions and determine if they are appropriate.
Reinhart, who approved the search warrant, said he did not believe the Justice Department proved that the document should remain completely private.
Reinhart was also responsible for unsealing the warrant itself, as well as some other related documents, after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the DOJ supported publicizing it, given the significant public interest in the case.
Garland defended the actions of the DOJ and FBI in a statement about the investigation, saying that their integrity was being “unfairly attacked.”
The unsealed warrant revealed that the FBI suspected Trump violated multiple laws, including the Espionage Act. A declassified receipt showed that eleven sets of classified items were seized during the search.
However, Trump claimed that he had already declassified the documents at Mar-a-Lago.
“Number one, it was all declassified,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Number two, they didn’t need to “seize” anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request.”
Trump argued that he declassified the documents at Mar-a-Lago while serving as president, but legal experts have said that Trump may still have violated the Espionage Act if he did so because classification status is not relevant to the provisions of the law.
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