Former Assistant Director of the FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) Steven D’Antuono has reached out to the US Congress citing concerns and frustration with the manner President Joe Biden's Department of Justice arranged the August 2022 raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan unveiled the damning testimony earlier this week and sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding answers.
First, D’Antuono, who had two decades of FBI experience, drew attention to the fact that the bureau's headquarters made the decision to assign the execution of the search warrant in Trump's Miami residence to… the Washington Field Office. As per D’Antuono, it looked strange given that the search occurred in the territory of the Miami Field Office, which should have been assigned with the task under the bureau's rules.
Second, the DoJ failed to assign a US Attorney's Office to the investigative matter of that magnitude which was "unusual" as per the FBI veteran. This triggered D'Antuono's deep concerns as it was "out of the ordinary." He noted that he "never got a good answer" from DoJ with regard to this decision.
Third, the FBI did not first seek content to effectuate the search. D’Antuono recalled that at the meeting between FBI and DoJ officials, the Department of Justice pushed the bureau to execute the search warrant as quickly as possible. Referring to his experience, the FBI veteran underscored that the agency should have sought consent to search the premises prior to the raid. D’Antuono suggested that either AG Garland or FBI Director Christopher Wray made the decision to seek a search warrant despite "opposition" from the agents working on the case in the WFO. D’Antuono pointed out that "there was a good likelihood that [Trump's legal team] could have given consent."
Fourth, the FBI refused to wait for Trump's attorney to be present before the raid, as per D’Antuono. The bureau veteran claimed that the FBI sought to exclude Trump's lawyers from the search, which again sounded an alarm for the senior officer.
The FBI veteran's testimony has prompted US Republican lawmakers to make a repeated request for bureau documents and information concerning the raid. In his latest letter to AG Garland, Jordan pointed out that a previous request regarding the matter was rejected by the Department of Justice.
The alleged expose of DoJ misconduct during the August raid comes after the department indicted Republican presidential candidate Trump earlier this week, charging him with 37 counts including the mishandling of classified materials. The charges further include obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy and false statements, as well as one charge under the Espionage Act.
"The Department [of Justice] will indict President Donald Trump, despite declining to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information and failing to indict President Biden for his mishandling of classified information," Jordan wrote. "The indictment creates, at the minimum, a serious appearance of a double standard and a miscarriage of justice."
The latest row between House Republicans and the DoJ erupted amid the congressional investigation into the apparent "preferential treatment" of Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, who has been probed for tax crimes since at least 2018. The House GOP is also presently looking into an uncorroborated report about Joe Biden receiving a $5 million bribe, which has recently been provided by the FBI to lawmakers.