As we told you earlier, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the FBI had taken three of his passports, “one expired,” during their raid on his home at Mar-a-Lago:
JUST IN – Trump said on social media platform Truth Social that his passports were taken during the home search pic.twitter.com/UA7wVL0VPH
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) August 15, 2022
At that point, CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell tweeted this: “According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports. Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home.”
Then it was reported that the FBI did take confiscate Trump passports during the operation, but they were not on the list of property seized, nor were they listed on the warrant of wanted items and documents:
BREAKING: The passports were not itemized on the FBI’s property receipt of items seized. The warrant did not state the FBI could take Trump’s passport. Typically, the government needs a separate court order to seize someone’s passport, even temporarily. https://t.co/QfdtEd7oOo
— Wendell Husebø (@WendellHusebo) August 15, 2022
Amongst all these questions about why the FBI would have taken something not listed on the warrant, Politico’s Kyle Cheney has noted that Trump made a big deal out of his passports being taken (while not even reportedly being listed among the items confiscated) by noting that the former president did so even though the DOJ offered to return them:
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So Trump team now publicizing this email, which shows:
1) DOJ obtained three passports (two expired, not one, as Trump said) and alerted Trump lawyers
2) They were recovered by a filter team, which weeds out privileged info.
3) Trump publicized this after DOJ offered them back pic.twitter.com/lz8wneIQ0a— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 15, 2022
Richard Grenell explained why the Trump team published the email:
https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1559342174373785600
We’re totally sure that if Trump were still president and the DOJ/FBI raided Hillary Clinton’s home she would have not mentioned it if her passports were confiscated (cue eye roll).
The problem is never what the left did. The problem is always the right noticing what the left did. https://t.co/asepev4E2a
— Small Gov Lizard (@smallgovlizard) August 16, 2022
"It's not the FBI's fault for taking Donald Trump's passports, it's Donald Trump's fault for saying something about it."
I guess our insufferable news media is just going to go with the @steve_vladeck method during this entire investigation. https://t.co/kGGpj3Sqox
— Sarcastic Cupcake (@SarcasticCupcak) August 16, 2022
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Related:
Justice Department opposed release of FBI affidavit used to justify Mar-a-Lago raid
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