Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Justice Department prosecutors sparred with each other over recovering documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
What Happened: Prosecutors wanted the FBI to conduct a surprise raid at the Palm Beach property but the two senior agents of the investigative agency who would be in charge of the search were disinclined to take such a course and instead proposed an alternative, which was to seek Trump’s permission for the search, reported The Washington Post, which cited four people familiar with the matter.
In May last year, the Washington field office of the Bureau had sought to slow the pace of the investigation and urged caution due to its sensitivity, according to the Post’s sources.
Some agents reportedly wanted to close the probe in early June after Trump’s legal team said a diligent search had been undertaken and all classified materials handed over.
The Department of Justice officials learned that some FBI agents were not eager to conduct a surprise search and heard from top officials at the Bureau that some agents were afraid that probing Trump would affect their careers, according to the report.
Prosecutors and the FBI met a week before the Aug.8 raid on Mar-a-Lago where Steven D’Antuono, the head of the FBI Washington field office reportedly was insistent that the agency not conduct such a surprise search.
Tempers flared at the meeting and the lead prosecutor Jay Bratt raised his voice at the meeting and underscored that time for trusting Trump and his attorneys was over, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
Why It Matters: D’Antuono brought up how bad it would look for agents in FBI jackets to enter a former president’s home. He also questioned if the search would target presidential records as well as classified records as the subpoena issued in May only was for classified records, reported the Post.
“We are not the presidential records police,” said D’Antuono, according to the Post’s sources.
The concern of the prosecutors was that Trump was intentionally hiding national secrets at Mar-a-Lago, while FBI agents wanted a more cooperative approach to be taken in a high-profile matter, noted the Post.
Prosecutors put forward the assertion that the FBI was failing to treat Trump like other government employees could threaten national security.
On Wednesday, former FBI agent Peter Strzok said Trump and others had “successfully chilled” the FBI’s willingness to “investigate anything related to Trump.”
Trump, Barr, Durham, and others successfully chilled the FBI’s willingness to investigate anything related to Trump.
— Pete Strzok (@petestrzok) March 1, 2023
The FBI handled Trump with unprecedented kid gloves, afraid to follow the facts for fear of political blowback, delaying the investigation for months.
“The FBI handled Trump with unprecedented kid gloves, afraid to follow the facts for fear of political blowback, delaying the investigation for months,” said Strzok on Twitter.
Ultimately, the prosecutors prevailed and multiple top-secret documents were recovered from Mar-a-Lago. However, the identities of the FBI agents were redacted later in an affidavit filed regarding the raid as they faced threats of violence from the public.
Read Next: New Details On Classified Documents Recovered From Trump's Mar-a-Lago Residence
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