WASHINGTON — The FBI did not believe agents had probable cause to execute a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022, according to internal records released Tuesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The FBI’s Washington Field Office said it “does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ [counterintelligence]) that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar-a-Lago,” according to one of the records authored by an unidentified assistant special agent.
“DOJ has opined that they do have probable cause,” the document continues, “requesting a wide scope including residence, office, storage space.”
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The FBI official noted that agents had spent six weeks trying to establish probable cause that was “counterproductive.”
Interviews with witnesses had also not yielded any proof that sensitive intelligence files remained hidden at the former president’s estate since a trove of them was returned on June 3, 2022.
Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted on X that the records were “shocking,” emphasizing that the “FBI DID NOT BELIEVE IT HAD PROBABLE CAUSE to raid Pres Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home but Biden DOJ pushed for it anyway.”
The Iowa Republican also claimed the emails and other documents were proof of a “miscarriage of justice” against Trump.
The memo on probable cause and another series of emails exchanged just one week before the Aug. 8, 2022, raid of the former president’s Palm Beach, Fla., residence show that the FBI was looking for “a second path” on the search warrant, Tony Riedlinger, Washington Field Office special agent in charge of counterintelligence, wrote in one communication.
Riedlinger and DC field office boss Steven D’Antuono also were included on an email that revealed the bureau had hopes the warrant would be executed “in a professional, low-key manner … mindful of the optics of the search.”
That involved a request for cooperation from one of Trump’s attorneys that the FBI officials said “may not go well at DOJ.”
Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with dozens of counts in June 2023 related to his alleged hoarding of sensitive intelligence files in bedroom, bathroom, ballroom, and basement locations at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
South Florida US District Judge Aileen Cannon later dismissed the case, ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed special counsel without congressional approval.
