Trump Encourages FBI Agents to Go ‘Nuts’ and Not ‘Take it Anymore’ Over Mar-a-Lago Raid

Though he was careful not to use the word, former President Donald Trump appeared to call for the rank and file of the FBI to revolt against its leadership over the search and seizure of classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago home and possible looming criminal indictment.

On Friday, a heavily redacted affidavit was released and revealed that prior to the search, federal agents were concerned the former president was still in possession of classified and top secret documents in an unsecured location, and that Trump’s team had not been forthcoming about the documents in numerous interactions with the National Archives.

The affidavit said there was “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at” Mar-a-Lago — a serious crime — and detailed the extensive efforts authorities went to retrieve the trove of documents Trump held at his Florida resort.

The affidavit revealed nearly 200 classified and top secret documents had already been retrieved in February of this year, the mishandling of which, according to a 2018 law signed by then-President Trump, would make citizen Trump guilty of a felony offense.

Despite the facts of the case, in a TruthSocial post from Sunday Trump sought to undermine FBI leadership by seeking to stoke distrust and anger inside the agency.

“When are the great Agents, and others, in the FBI going to say ‘we aren’t going to take it anymore,” much as they did when James Comey read off a list of all of Crooked Hillary Clinton’s crimes, only to say that no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute.,” Trump said.

“The wonderful people of the FBI went absolutely “nuts,” so Comey had to backtrack and do a FAKE INVESTIGATION in order to keep them at bay,” he continued. “The end result, we won in 2016 (and did MUCH better in 2020!). But now the ‘Left’ has lost their minds!!!”

At roughly 2 a.m. Monday, he re-upped this message exhorting, “FBI, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

It’s not clear what Trump means exactly by going “nuts.” But it is clear that Trump is looking to drive a wedge between FBI and DOJ leadership and the rank and file.

The FBI raid carried out against former President Donald Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 led to the seizure of documents that the bureau had already classified as falling under “attorney-client privilege.”

In a court filing on Monday, federal prosecuters said that the invasive FBI search had turned up a “limited” number of such documents. It is unclear what an “unlimited” number of client-attorney privileged documents would look like.

The startling development is likely to provide further evidence to a district court judge that a “special master” is needed to supervise the division of Trump’s documents the FBI grabbed at Mar-a-Lago. There are alleged “classified” documents that are purportedly pertinent to national security, and those that fall under executive privilege and attorney-client privilege. Trump’s legal team has rebutted the DOJ by pointing out that the former president’s documents were “declassified” under a standing order he issued prior to leaving the White House.

On Saturday, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order giving the Justice Department until Tuesday to produce a more detailed list of items seized at Mar-a-Lago, as well as the proceedings of the Department of Justice’s “filter team” that is going through all of Trump’s documents.

Judge Cannon also indicated that she was leaning towards an independent, court-appointed “special master,” as Donald Trump’s legal team had earlier requested in a legal motion.

The Justice Department said on Monday that it will comply with the judge’s request and file the documents under seal by Tuesday.

Despite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton carrying out official government business on an illicit server during her tenure in office, the ODNI resisted performing a similar intelligence damage-assessment, despite her possession and transmission of classified documents.

Donald Trump was President of the United States and possessed ultimate declassification authority, while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not, as of time of publication