House Republicans Demand DOJ, FBI Preserve Documents In Relation To FBI Raid On Trump

House Republicans on Monday sent letters to top officials in the Biden administration demanding they preserve and hand over documents related to the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Eighteen Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent the letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.

“The FBI’s unprecedented raid of President Trump’s residence is a shocking escalation of the Biden Administration’s weaponization of law-enforcement resources against its political opponents,” each letter begins.

“The American people deserve transparency and accountability from our most senior law-enforcement officials in the executive branch,” it continues. “We will settle for nothing but your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”

The correspondence demands that each department preserve “all documents and communications” related to the raid and produce them to the committee “no later than 5:00 p.m. on August 29, 2022.”

RELATED: Republicans Demand Garland Brief Homeland Security On Trump FBI Raid, Slam ‘Politically Motivated Witch Hunt’

Republicans Demand FBI, DOJ Preserve and Release Documents

The letters from House Republicans to Biden administration officials demanding they preserve and release documents related to the unprecedented raid on the President’s main political opponent are more symbolic for the time being.

The GOP does not have subpoena power as the minority in the House of Representatives.

Still, the move signals an intensification of possible probes into the matter should the GOP win back the House following the midterms.

The letters come just days after Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) vowed that the Senate would investigate the raid should Republicans wrestle back control in November.

“If I’m in the majority, and I’m Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, again, I intend to pursue all of these things until we get to the bottom of it,” Grassley told Breitbart News over the weekend.

RELATED: ‘Preserve Your Documents’: McCarthy Threatens AG Merrick Garland With Investigation After FBI Raid Of Trump’s Home

Demand a Briefing From DHS

Republican lawmakers late last week demanded a Homeland Security briefing by the FBI, Department of Justice, and National Archives following news that Garland gave a personal greenlight to the raid on Trump’s home.

But, as Fox News host Jesse Waters pointed out to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – Republicans like to talk a lot about what they’re going to do regarding the unprecedented harassment directed at Trump, but will they actually take action?

Democrats certainly would. They threatened impeachment for months upon months then acted when they found the first opening. Then they did it again.

And quite obviously, the harassment has never ended.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was one of the first to call for a probe into Garland’s actions, saying on the very day of the raid that he had “seen enough.”

“Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” he wrote.

Democrats have countered the GOP’s efforts with Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) sending their own letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

That letter seeks a national security damage assessment on the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

Trump has claimed all documents in his Mar-a-Lago home were “declassified” and insisted officials “didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything. They could have had it at any time.”

The FBI under the direction of Garland fetched the documents – including ancillary material such as Trump’s passports that they have since returned – and now the Democrats are going to use them to investigate the former President yet again.

Do Republicans understand they need to be equally as relentless in order to stop this level of corruption?

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Spike in FBI threats unsettles the right

An uptick in threats to the FBI after it executed a search warrant at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is unsettling the political right, with some calling on allies of the former president to tone down their rhetoric.

Barriers have been erected outside the perimeter of the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., while the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly issued a joint bulletin Friday warning about spikes in threats that included a bomb threat at FBI headquarters and calls for “civil war” and “armed rebellion.”

Fox News host Steve Doocy on Monday urged the former president and others to “tamp down the rhetoric against the FBI” in light of the threats, while Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Trump’s language was “inflammatory.”

“I don’t want to put any law enforcement in the bull’s-eye of a potential threat,” McCaul said.

The bulletin issued by DHS and the FBI cited an incident in which a man armed with an AR-15-style rifle allegedly fired a nail gun into an FBI office in Cincinnati last week, according to NBC News. He was fatally shot by police after a chase and standoff, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Trump on Monday in an interview with Fox News did say the temperature on the issue needed to come down, adding that he’d told aides to reach out to the Department of Justice to help.

But in the same interview, Trump directed his wrath at the Justice Department and suggested that his supporters’ anger was justified. Trump said that Americans are “not going to stand for another scam,” said that the FBI can “break into a president’s house” in a “sneak attack” and suggested that the FBI “could have planted anything they wanted” during the search.

In another post on Truth Social, his social media platform, he claimed that his passports had been taken during the search. Passports were not included on a list of items mentioned as part of a warrant released on Friday, though some of the descriptions of what was seized were broad in nature.

The president’s account on the platform his own business launched is one of his most direct ways to reach supporters online now, since he lost access to his Twitter and Facebook accounts after his posts the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a former FBI agent, told Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he was concerned about the safety of FBI agents.

“Violence is never the answer to anything,” Fitzpatrick said. “We live in a democracy that's 246 years old, Margaret. That's not long, that's just a few generations, and yet we're the world's only democracy. And the only way that can come unraveled is if we have disrespect for our institutions that lead to Americans turning on Americans and the whole system becomes unraveled. And a lot of that starts with the words we're using.”

“I'm also urging all my colleagues to understand the weight of your words and support law enforcement no matter what,” he added.

Republicans have sought to differentiate between Biden appointees and rank-and-file FBI agents when raising concerns about potential politicization of the department.

“I won't smear the FBI, like the career FBI agents,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said Friday. “But the political appointees running this stuff are very worrisome.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray was appointed by Trump in 2017.

Some Republicans have continued to use incendiary rhetoric to speak to their massive online bases. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), using her official congressional account since her personal Twitter was suspended in January over COVID-19 misinformation, told her 1 million followers Monday that “Republicans must force” the “political persecution” to stop. Greene filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Merrick Garland last week.

Katherine Keneally, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), said she is most concerned about the potential for extremist groups to capitalize on this moment to mobilize for future membership. 

“Specifically, any accelerationist groups that are seeing an uptick in people being upset at the FBI, a government agency, works very well for recruitment for an organization that wants to collapse the US government. So I think that's where my concern is, that these even more nefarious groups are going to use this as a catalyst moment for recruitment,” she said. 

According to a report compiled by ISD analysts, social media accounts believed to belong to the alleged Cincinnati gunman, Ricky Shiffer, suggest he was “motivated by a combination of conspiratorial beliefs related to former President Trump and the 2020 election (among others), interest in killing federal law enforcement, and the recent search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.”

ISD researchers found that Shiffer was likely prepping for the attack for at least two days, based on posts from a since-removed Truth Social account believed to belong to him.

The researchers also found posts and photographs placing Shiffer at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, although it is not confirmed if he was present during the insurrection, and posts on the right-wing video site Rumble that show Shiffer encouraging users to “get in touch with the Proud Boys,” a far-right group. 

Keneally said the Ohio incident hasn’t been mentioned widely by other far-right users of online platforms, likely because it wasn’t successful. But researchers are still seeing general calls for violence targeting the FBI. 

Those monitoring the online vitriol, across mainstream platforms and fringe sites that cater to conservative users, warned that the posts from lawmakers and influencers online could incite their followers to take real-world action.

“It certainly plays a role in the radicalization process,” Keneally said.

“While they might not be directly calling for violence, the conspiratorial allegations certainly play a role in how these people are radicalized, and how they go down that path, regardless of whether it's an official stating, ‘kill the FBI,’ that's not what needs to be said to help radicalize. You just accused the FBI of ‘overstepping their boundaries,’ or like ‘taking away your constitutional rights,’ and that's what that's what people are mobilizing around,” Keneally said. 

The FBI Is Now The Federal Bureau Of Intimidation

By Frank Miele for RealClearPolitics

Nothing symbolizes the decline of the American republic better than the weaponization of justice that we saw last week when the FBI raided the home of former President Trump.

And nothing better represents the divide that now exists between Democrats and Republicans than the fact that some people still have faith in the FBI.

Aren’t they paying attention? Heck, that’s like a citizen of the old Soviet Union saying they had faith in the KGB – yeah, to crush dissent and lock up opponents of the regime in a Siberian gulag.

RELATED: FBI Now Warning About ‘Dirty Bomb’ Threats, Calls for ‘Civil War’ Following Mar-a-Lago Raid

The evidence is overwhelming. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now the Federal Bureau of Intimidation. Or more appropriately, the Federal Intimidation Bureau, whose acronym would spell out FIB, as in the Big Lie. Face it, nothing the FBI has said for the last six years since they joined with the Democratic Party to invent the Russia collusion hoax can be taken seriously.

Is there any need to go through the whole laundry list of lies and fabrications that the FBI, with the aid and comfort of the Justice Department, has foisted on the American public?

You can start with the extraordinary 2016 press conference when FBI Director James Comey detailed crimes committed by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton related to her improper use of a private email account to store classified material. Moments after saying she had broken the law, Comey announced with a straight face that “no reasonable prosecutor” would ever bring a case against her. Yeah, because she was a Democrat!

A couple months later, Comey set up President Trump’s National Security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn, by sending agents to interview him about his supposed contacts with Russians.

“What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” wrote Bill Priestap in a memo before the interview. Priestap was counterintelligence director at the FBI, and it became evident later that the agency’s goal was indeed to get him fired – and more importantly to get Trump impeached, fired, humiliated, you name it.

Comey himself admitted that the FBI targeted Flynn and chose not to approach him through the White House legal counsel, but informally with a direct phone call to arrange an interview. As Comey later told a reporter, it was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more … organized administration.”

What about the FBI’s abuse of Carter Page and George Papadopoulos? The agency made up evidence in support of subpoenas, FISA warrants, whatever it took to get the desired result. What about the FBI and Department of Justice targeting parents at school boards as “domestic terrorists” because they demanded that their elected representatives actually represent them? What about the unilateral rescission of executive privilege and attorney-client privilege wherever it would have protected President Trump and his advisers?

RELATED: Republicans Demand Garland Brief Homeland Security On Trump FBI Raid, Slam ‘Politically Motivated Witch Hunt’

The purpose of all of this activity, along with the raid at Mar-a-Lago, was to intimidate not just Trump, but also his supporters. Anyone other than Donald Trump would have given up long ago. Who could possibly withstand the power of the state marshaled against you for six long years – through multiple FBI investigations, through two impeachments, through relentless persecution of your children and your friends and family?

Finally, what about the double standard that allows Democrats and their government allies to go unpunished for a multitude of sins? Notwithstanding Attorney General Merrick Garland’s feigned indignation on behalf of the bureau, what about the FBI agents who lied repeatedly during the Trump-Russia investigation, sometimes under oath.

Even more stunning has been the FBI’s monumental failure to investigate presidential son Hunter Biden, even though it received his laptop with extensive incriminating evidence of criminal activity in 2019.

Even when the laptop was made public during the 2020 presidential election, the FBI stood silent and thus gave tacit approval to the cynical Democratic Party talking point that the laptop was somehow a GOP dirty trick.

It would be interesting to know if the FBI had anything to do with the letter signed by 51 national security experts, falsely claiming that the laptop was “Russian disinformation”! Maybe, like Comey before him, FBI Director Chris Wray thought he could “get away with it.”

That is certainly the only explanation for the raid on the president’s personal residence. It was not appropriate. It was not reasonable. It had no precedent. The FBI claims that the pre-dawn raid by more than 30 armed agents was for the purpose of collecting presidential papers that the National Archive wanted.

The Washington Post says that Trump reportedly had documents with nuclear secrets on them, and the legacy media went ballistic with the story. But wait a minute, isn’t that the same Washington Post that won a Pulitzer Prize for collaborating with the FBI to invent the Russia collusion hoax?

RELATED: Judge Who Signed Mar-a-Lago Warrant Defended Jeffrey Epstein Employees, Donated To Obama

Don’t believe a word from either the Washington Post or the FBI. Trump had been cooperating with the National Archive and had already turned over 15 boxes of documents, all of which he could have made a claim to legally possess. If they wanted papers turned over, they could have gone through Trump’s lawyers. No, they wanted the spectacle. They wanted the sizzle. They wanted the headlines.

This wasn’t about the rule of law; it was about the rule of the schoolyard. Bullies get what they want through force and intimidation, and there is no reason for any of us to believe that the raid had any purpose other than to intimidate Donald Trump into backing down from his plans to run for president in 2024.

Essentially what the FBI was saying is “We know where you live, and we aren’t afraid to come for you.” They even rifled through Melania Trump’s closet, as if she might have been hiding top-secret documents in her hat box. When do we find out they also spent an hour sorting through her lingerie?

This is sickening, no matter how much MSNBC and the Washington Post want you to think you can still trust the FBI. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me over and over and over again, and I must be a Democrat.

Frank Miele, the retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell Mont., is a columnist for RealClearPolitics. His new book, “What Matters Most: God, Country, Family and Friends,” is available from his Amazon author page. Visit him at HeartlandDiaryUSA.com or follow him on Facebook @HeartlandDiaryUSA or on Twitter or Gettr @HeartlandDiary.

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Trump Demands Immediate Release Of Search Warrant, Denies Reports That FBI Raid Was Over Nuclear Weapons Documents

Former President Donald Trump is demanding the immediate release of the search warrant for the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home, and denied that the raid was an attempt to retrieve classified documents about nuclear weapons.

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday said he would petition for the document to be unsealed.

Trump offered his thoughts on his Truth Social media platform, indicating he would not challenge the release.

“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents,” he said.

Trump accused the search warrant documents of having “been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me, much as they have done for the last 6 years.”

Garland admitted earlier in the day that he personally signed off on the warrant to search Trump’s home. His actions mark an unprecedented legal effort by a sitting Attorney General against the likely opponent of the President that nominated him to the post.

A ruling on the motion could come before the weekend.

RELATED: Report: Informant In Trump’s Circle Tipped Off FBI, Led Agents To Location Of Documents

Reports Claim FBI Raid Was Seeking Documents About Nuclear Weapons at Trump’s Home

Also on Thursday, the Washington Post published a sensational report stemming from “people familiar with the investigation” who allege that the raid on Trump’s home was an attempt to retrieve documents pertaining to “nuclear weapons.”

“Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday,” they wrote.

The sources declined to offer additional details and refused to say if any such documents had been found.

CNN piggybacked off the Washington Post report to allege it “could explain the urgency of the unprecedented operation” and “takes his showdown with the Justice Department to a grave new level.”

It doesn’t of course. There was no ‘urgency.’ What it does is raise other questions.

RELATED: Republican Lawmakers Say Trump Is ‘Fired Up,’ And Made Up His Mind About 2024 Following FBI Raid

Trump Says It’s a Hoax

Right-leaning pundits expressed immediate skepticism of the reports that Trump’s home was raided because the FBI was searching for nuclear weapons documents.

If President Trump had been hiding away such documents, why did he cooperate with the FBI for months in turning over documents that they had requested?

And if they were of such a highly classified nature, concerning nuclear weapons, why did they negotiate at all rather than just conducting the raid from the onset?

Former assistant secretary of the Treasury Monica Crowley openly wondered about this very fact.

“So now they’re saying Trump may have had our nation’s most sensitive nuclear secrets – but they waited a year and half to go get them?” she tweeted.

Conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler suggested the DOJ was overcompensating its concerns by citing nuclear weapons when they had a more basic but politically motivated intent.

“Don’t believe for a second the FBI was searching for nuclear weapons documents at Mar-a-Lago,” she tweeted. “DOJ overshot.”

“They thought they could Marc Elias this – claim a classified doc was mishandled & charge Trump & forbid him from serving in public office again.”

But the biggest skeptic out there was Trump himself.

“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” he wrote on Truth Social early this morning. “Same sleazy people involved.”

Trump questioned why the FBI wouldn’t allow his lawyers to oversee the inspection and instead “made them wait outside in the heat.”

The former President contested the agents’ motives as well.

“Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a Christofer (sic) Steele Dossier!”

Perhaps the warrant being unsealed would clarify or confirm what the sources told the Washington Post about nuclear weapons. Or perhaps it won’t – the FBI certainly hasn’t done anything untoward in obtaining search warrants in the past, have they?

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Republican Lawmakers Say Trump Is ‘Fired Up,’ And Made Up His Mind About 2024 Following FBI Raid

All signs are pointing to former President Trump being even more “fired up” about running in 2024 following the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.

Representatives Jim Banks (R-IN) and Claudia Tenney (R-NY) were two of nearly a dozen members of the House Republican Study Committee who huddled with Trump at a New Jersey retreat earlier in the week. Both left with impressions on the 2024 presidential election.

Banks indicated that the FBI raid hadn’t dampened Trump’s spirits. 

“He didn’t seem defeated in the least bit—he was very fired up, very upbeat,” he told Fox News.

Banks added that the incident seems to have accelerated the former President’s desire to announce a decision on a 2024 campaign and that “we are going to like his decision.”

RELATED: Trump Speaks: Angrily Condemns ‘Political Persecution’ As FBI Raids Mar-a-Lago

FBI Raid May Have Motivated Trump to Run in 2024 Even More

Rep. Claudia Tenney also seemed to indicate Trump’s spirits were alive and well following the FBI raid.

Tenney thanked the likely Republican nominee for his continued support and endorsement in her congressional district following her visit to Trump National Golf Club at Bedminster.

And if you thought he was down following the raid, she says best think again.

“Thrilled to report he’s feeling better than ever despite the Democrats’ endless smears against him,” she wrote. “Trump 2024!”

Tenney, in an interview on Real America’s Voice, said the actions taken by the FBI and DOJ amounted to the “fourth impeachment” of President Trump.

“They’re going to try to attempt to stop him from running for president,” Tenney said. “And that’s really what it’s about. Because they’re afraid he will get out there and he will run and he will win.”

RELATED: After FBI Raid, Trump Fires Back With Epic New Video Promising ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’

When Will He Announce?

In a statement following the FBI raid, Trump himself concurred that the weaponization of the Justice Department was an attempt to stop him in 2024.

“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 …” he said.

Trump, as The Political Insider reported, had made up his “own mind” about running last month, though the timing of an official announcement was still up in the air.

Some had suggested committing to a run prior to the midterms might negatively affect races by stirring up Democrat turnout.

Banks, however, suggested Trump “enjoyed encouragement” from the House Republican Study Committee to “get the decision out sooner rather than later.”

“He only helps us win back more seats in November,” Banks insisted. “The Republican Party is bigger and stronger than ever before because of Donald Trump’s leadership.” 

The former President does seem further motivated by the FBI raid, as do his supporters.

As is characteristic of his personality, Trump came out swinging immediately following this week’s events with an ad posted to his Truth Social media account.

“We are a nation that in many ways has become a joke,” Trump said in the ad. “But soon we will have greatness again.”

In it, he predicts that “the best is yet to come.”

Becky Noble of The Political Insider notes that the FBI raid may have backfired on Democrats for 2024.

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“If his enemies thought he was defeated,” she wrote, “they were wrong.”

Added Banks, “What happened at Mar-a-Lago unifies Republicans in our outrage … and we stand with President Trump.”

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Judge Who Signed Mar-A-Lago Warrant Defended Jeffrey Epstein Employees, Donated To Obama

The details of Monday’s FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of former President Donald Trump, keep getting more interesting.

Bruce Reinhart, the federal magistrate judge who signed off on the search warrant for Trump’s residence donated to former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and at one point, went from prosecutor to defense attorney to defend individuals connected to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

RELATED: Another Republican Who Voted To Impeach Trump Goes Down – Trump Mocks Her For ‘Stupidly Playing Into Democrats’ Hands

The Judge In Question

According to a report from Politico, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart is ‘highly regarded’ in the Palm Beach legal community, and is known for being “meticulous” in his work. 

Reinhart’s background was in prosecution until Jan. 2 2008, he became the defense counsel representing several employees of Epstein, including pilots, his scheduler, and a woman later described by some of Epstein’s victims as a “sex slave.”

Politico reports that in 2011, Reinhart was named in a lawsuit and was accused of violating Justice Department policy by representing the Epstein employees. Reinhart has denied any wrongdoing. He said that he was not a part of the criminal case and did not learn any confidential information while serving as prosecutor.

RELATED: Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten Claims Conservatives The Enemy Of Educators

More Details Of The Raid Emerging

Fox News reports that the search warrant issued for Mar-a-Lago was to focus entirely on “presidential records and evidence of classified information being stored there.” 

The Fox News report also says that agents combed through former First Lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe and the private office of the former president. Drawers were also gone through and a safe broken into.

Reportedly, the FBI or DOJ did not allow attorneys for Trump into the residence to observe what was going on during the roughly nine-hour raid. About 15 boxes were taken from a locked private storage basement area.

Federal agents also reportedly attempted to get Trump representatives to turn off any security cameras which they refused to do.

RELATED: Why Are Lawmakers Continuing To Push For A Digital Dollar? Look To China

Who’s Next?

Republicans didn’t have to wait long for the answer to the question “who’s next.” The day after the Mar-a-Lago raid, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a close Trump ally, said his cellphone was seized by FBI agents while on vacation with his family.

In a statement, Perry said,

“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone. They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish. I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress.”

Perry has refused to cooperate with the Jan. 6 Committee on several occasions, calling it “illegitimate,” and also filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Merrick Garland in October of 2021 in relation to targeting parents at school board meetings.

With judges like Bruce Reinhart at the ready, perhaps Republicans should keep asking who’s next.

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GOP Congressman Who Was Target of January 6 Committee Says FBI Seized His Cellphone After Mar-a-Lago Raid

Representative Scott Perry, an ally of former Donald Trump and the current chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, says the FBI seized his cellphone a day after the unprecedented raid by agents on the Mar-a-Lago home of the former President.

The raid had reportedly involved an investigation into the handling of classified documents that may have been brought to Trump’s Palm Beach residence.

But the confiscation of Perry’s phone creates new questions as to the FBI’s intent, as the Pennsylvania Republican has been an ally of the former President in his quest to promote unproven election fraud claims, making him a target of the January 6 House select committee.

“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” Perry said in a statement. “They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish.”

“I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress,” he added.

RELATED: Hillary Clinton Pounces On Trump FBI Raid, Now Fundraising With ‘But Her Emails’ Merchandise

Scott Perry’s Cellphone Seized by the FBI

It’s difficult to ascertain why Scott Perry would be targeted by the FBI and have his cellphone seized one day after a raid on Mar-a-Lago.

Perry has a history of supporting Trump’s claims of election fraud, however, and has been a target of the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot.

He also, as Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) points out, has targeted Garland himself, filing articles of impeachment against the Attorney General in October of 2021.

Perry’s articles of impeachment accuse Garland of having “presided over a reckless and corrosive politicization of the Department of Justice at the expense of our Nation’s children.”

The articles at the time referenced the DOJ’s targeting of parents at school board meetings.

With that information as context, it’s easy to wonder if the seizure of Perry’s cellphone was politically motivated.

RELATED: ‘Some Third World Bulls***’ – Dan Bongino Goes Ballistic On Fox News Over FBI Raid of Trump’s Home

Why Did They Target a Sitting Congressman?

Unfortunately, without comment from the FBI at the present time, seizing Representative Scott Perry’s cell phone leads to major speculation.

Perry has repeatedly refused to cooperate with the select committee’s investigation into the January 6 riot, suggesting the anti-Trump panel is “illegitimate.”

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The manner and mode of the raid have led conservatives to openly wonder if the FBI isn’t using the search for classified documents as a means to find evidence surrounding the Capitol riot.

Sirius XM podcast host Megyn Kelly expressed skepticism that the Mar-a-Lago raid was about classified documents at all.

“Bullshit – there is no way that’s what they were searching for,” she told listeners. “This is about January 6, and the never-ending desire to get Donald Trump on something.”

Perry suggested Garland’s Justice Department had plunged the United States into “banana republic” territory and noted if they were willing to seize his cellphone and information, and willing to raid a former President’s home, what will they do with their newfound power at the IRS?

The Political Insider reported earlier this week that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act passed by Senate Democrats over the weekend adds $80 billion to the IRS budget for enforcement purposes, allowing them to unleash roughly 87,000 new auditors on low-to-middle income Americans.

“As with President Trump last night, DOJ chose this unnecessary and aggressive action instead of simply contacting my attorneys,” Perry said.

“These kinds of banana republic tactics should concern every Citizen — especially considering the decision before Congress this week to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to further persecute law-abiding Citizens.”

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Trump Speaks: Angrily Condemns ‘Political Persecution’ As FBI Raids Mar-a-Lago

Former President Donald Trump slammed never-ending “political persecution” by Democrats as he confirmed his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida had been raided by the FBI.

“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement released Monday evening.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”

CNN reports that the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home as part of an investigation into the handling of possible classified documents that may have been brought there.

RELATED: Report: Biden Justice Department Criminally Investigating Trump ‘Effort to Overturn Election’

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home Raided by FBI

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said in February that Trump earlier this year had to return 15 boxes of documents that were improperly taken from the White House.

The FBI appears to be pursuing concerns of classified materials in the home of former President Trump, something that they provably dismissed and allowed Hillary Clinton to do when she served as Secretary of State.

Trump blasted the raid and suggested it was part of a coordinated weaponization of federal government agencies to stop him from running for President in 2024.

“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries,” he stated. “Sadly, America has now become one of those countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.”

“The political persecution of President Donald J. Trump has been going on for years, with the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, Impeachment Hoax 11, Impeachment Hoax #2, and so much more, it just never ends, it is political targeting at the highest level!”

RELATED: Report: Whistleblowers Allege ‘Scheme’ by FBI, DOJ to Suppress Negative Information About Hunter Biden Before 2020 Election

Supporters Come out in Droves

Numerous supporters of former President Donald Trump gathered outside his Mar-a-Lago home after news had spread of the FBI raid.

Several suggested the raid was a political move by the Department of Justice to prevent Trump from running again in 2024. Others simply concurred that it was political persecution.

“As soon as I saw it, I drove here from Tampa. This is nuts,” one man who had driven across the state told Fox News. “We all know what you’re trying to do, DOJ. You’re trying to create some kind of charge so he’s not going to be able to run for reelection.”

“They’re going to do anything they can to get him. They’re terrified of him,” another claimed.

A White House official claimed President Biden was not given advance notice of the FBI raid.

Lara Trump offered commentary hinting that the siege on Mar-a-Lago was more to do with the left and the establishment’s hatred of the former President.

“They detest Donald Trump, not just on the Democrat side, but the general establishment, because he’s not one of them, because he doesn’t play their game,” she said.

Lara Trump warned that if the Justice Department and the FBI are willing to do this to a former President, “think about what they could do to you.”

The Political Insider reported on Monday that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act passed by Senate Democrats over the weekend adds $80 billion to the IRS budget for enforcement purposes.

That budget would unleash roughly 87,000 new IRS auditors.

Matt Schlapp, the chairman of The American Conservative Union, says the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago demonstrates the Biden administration has converted the United States into a Third World country.

“President Biden’s politicized FBI just raided President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago,” he wrote. “This nation is becoming unrecognizable. Biden has successfully transformed America into a third-world country.”

Schlapp notes that a CPAC Texas straw poll shows respondents believe the greatest threat to America right now comes from within.

According to that poll, 91% of attendees believe the greatest threat to America is “internal forces such as the Deep State, public education and the mainstream media,” while just 8% pointed to “external forces such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.”

The Political Insider reports that beyond the investigation of classified documents, the Justice Department is also investigating Trump as part of a criminal probe into “efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”

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Pelosi courts controversy with Taiwan trip that’s personal to Speaker

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has stirred a storm of controversy, heightening tensions with China and captivating the world’s attention.

For the California Democrat, however, the trip is something much more personal.

Pelosi has a long track record of confronting Chinese leaders head-on, particularly on issues of human rights, stretching back decades to include the massacre of pro-democracy activists on Tiananmen Square.

Her decision to visit Taiwan — a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as its own — ranks among the most conspicuous exhibitions of that advocacy campaign; Pelosi on Tuesday became the highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot in Taiwan in 25 years.

Through that lens, Pelosi's trek — taken in the twilight of her long career against the wishes of the Biden administration — is not only a diplomatic endeavor to demonstrate U.S. support for Taiwanese autonomy, but a legacy-building crusade for a figure who likes to boast she takes “second place to no one” in her condemnation of Beijing's human rights atrocities.

It’s a historic trip for a historic Speaker — and it may prove to be the crowning global performance of a long political run that’s widely expected to reach an end with the close of this Congress.

“Pelosi has a long history of challenging Beijing — including her visit to Tiananmen Square in 1991 – unfurling an American flag no less,” Sarah Binder, political science professor at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in an email Tuesday, just hours after the Speaker landed in Taipei.

“If she does indeed retire after this Congress, I suspect the trip will be viewed as the capstone of her legacy on the issue (well, if all goes well, that is),” Binder said.

That “if” has also been on the minds of top Biden administration officials, particularly those in the Pentagon who had cautioned against Pelosi’s visit over concerns that it would trigger a retaliatory response from Beijing. President Biden had vocalized the Defense Department’s apprehensions late last month, telling reporters that “the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now.”

Yet Biden never attempted to dissuade the trip himself, Pelosi said, and White House officials more recently have come around to bless the visit — at least publicly — while warning China against any sort of bellicose response.

“We shouldn’t be — as a country — we shouldn’t be intimidated by that rhetoric or those potential actions,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday in an interview with CNN. “This is an important trip for the Speaker to be on and we’re going to do whatever we can to support her.”

Chinese leaders have ignored those warnings, following up their initial admonitions with new threats after Pelosi arrived in Taipei. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly issued a statement saying Pelosi’s visit not only represents “a serious violation of the one-China principle,” but will have “a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations.”

“It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence,’ ” the ministry charged.

Shortly afterward, Beijing announced that it would launch “targeted military operations” around Taiwan.

Pelosi on Tuesday explained her reasoning behind the trip with some unveiled shots of her own, accusing Beijing’s leaders of doing everything they can — economically, diplomatically, militarily and even through cyberattacks — to punish Taiwan for its enduring resistance to Chinese rule.

“In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) accelerating aggression, our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom,” Pelosi wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

That message of democratic solidarity, she added, is even more urgent in the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of a peaceful Ukraine earlier in the year.

“As Russia wages its premeditated, illegal war against Ukraine, killing thousands of innocents — even children — it is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats,” she wrote.

Pelosi’s place in history is already assured. She was the first woman to lead any party in Congress, and in ascending to the Speakership in 2007 became the highest-ranking woman in U.S. history — a distinction surpassed only last year when Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president.

Over that span, Pelosi shepherded the passage of historic legislation, including ObamaCare, an economic stimulus package in response to the Great Recession and the Wall Street reforms that followed that financial collapse. More recently, she oversaw both impeachments of President Trump, and launched the select committee that’s now investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Her shift this week to take on China promises to extend that legacy well beyond domestic policy and into the realm of foreign diplomacy. Binder, of Brookings, said it has highlighted the fact that congressional legislators can play a crucial role in areas typically reserved for the executive branch.

“In a word, their actions can be consequential for public affairs far beyond the halls of Congress,” she said.

Pelosi’s outspoken campaign against China’s despots, launched with her 1991 visit to Tiananmen Square, hardly ended there. In the years since, the Speaker has also condemned Chinese abuses against pro-democracy activists across Hong Kong and Tibet; she’s pressed Chinese leaders directly to release political prisoners; she’s met a number of times with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet; and most recently, she fiercely denounced Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group in China’s western-most province, labeling it a genocide.

Pelosi’s show of solidarity with Taiwan this week has been met with overwhelming support on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers in both parties have cheered her defiance of Beijing, even as it ruffles feathers at the White House.

“I can see how it could create some tension in the region,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). “But I was telling some people the other night: Don't get concerned about it. I don't think anybody's trying to create an international incident.

“If I had anything to say to the Chinese leadership it would just be: Be cool."

Republicans are also on board. Led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 26 GOP senators issued a statement Tuesday praising her decision.

“She has every right to go,” McConnell later told reporters.

Hollywood Conservative Jon Voight Calls On Joe Biden To Be Impeached

Conservative actor Jon Voight posted a video to social media earlier this week calling for the impeachment of President Joe Biden.

The two-minute clip focuses mainly on crime issues and wonders if the “darkness” of the Biden years can “be lifted.”

“We have a troubled nation with much horror from these criminals that are ruining lives,” Voight states, “We must stop this now. We must bring back our nation’s safety.”

The Academy Award-winning actor pointed the finger at Biden for taking “down our morals, our true gift of the land of the free.”

“He must be impeached,” he added. “Don’t let this President Biden tear down every inch that was sacrificed with blood, sweat, and tears for his dictation of lies.”

Watch:

RELATED: Ted Cruz: Biden Impeachment Likely If Republicans Win Back The House

Jon Voight: Impeach President Joe Biden

Polling consistently shows the American people are fed up with President Biden and his party’s soft-on-crime policies.

In a CBS News poll, 61 percent of voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of crime. Likewise, a Washington Post-ABC poll found Republicans hold a 12-point advantage on the issue of crime.

“We must protect this nation and bring back safety. We’re all feeling very unsafe,” Voight said before calling on Joe Biden to be impeached.

Aside from crime, there are several areas in which a Republican House could impeach the President or at least investigate the Biden administration.

Top of that list would be open borders.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) when asked if he believed similar to Jon Voight that Biden could be impeached said, “I do think there’s a chance of that.”

“Whether it’s justified or not, the Democrats weaponized impeachment,” Cruz continued. “They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him.”

Cruz went on to explain that the border crisis and Biden’s “decision to just defy immigration laws” are the most likely grounds for impeachment.

Republican Representative Claudia Tenney of New York also demanded Joe Biden be impeached after police video surfaced showing illegal immigrants being flown by federal contractors into Westchester County Airport.

RELATED: NY Rep. Calls For Biden To Be Impeached After Police Video Shows Feds Flying Illegal Immigrants Into NY

Voight Calls Trump a ‘Hero’

Roughly one year prior to his video calling on Biden to be impeached, Midnight Cowboy actor Jon Voight appeared in another video defending President Donald Trump and his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani as “heroes of the United States.”

“We as a nation will stand up for these men, heroes of the United States of America because my friends God is our witness and he will show who’s boss,” he said. “Pray for justice and truth!”

Voight said Trump, while Democrats spent four years viciously attacking him and calling for his impeachment, is “the greatest president of this century.”

Aside from open borders, President Biden easily could have been impeached over the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

The incompetence behind the withdrawal led to a suicide bombing killing 13 service members, a retaliatory drone strike by the United States that killed 10 civilians – including an aid worker and 7 children – and hundreds of Americans being left behind for a significant period of time in the Taliban-controlled country.

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The White House’s efforts to create a letter alongside the National School Boards Association (NSBA) that would spur an attempt to weaponize the FBI and DOJ against concerned parents whom they branded potential “domestic terrorists” also should have opened some eyes.

Biden’s bungling of the COVID response, where more Americans died under his watch with multiple vaccines and therapies available, should also prompt further scrutiny.

Democrats most certainly would have impeached Trump over it had he won in 2020.

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