Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, late Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump said in a lengthy statement that the FBI was conducting a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and asserted that agents had broken open a safe. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
- The former President claims the 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago home was “political persecution,” saying the “tortious acts” were “rooted in intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process.”
Former President Donald Trump plans to sue the U.S. Department of Justice for $100 million in punitive damages from the 2022 FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
Trump’s attorney Daniel Epstein writes in a notice memo that the “tortious acts against the President are rooted in intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process.”
The memo, shared by Kaelen Dease with the Washington Examiner, claims the “operational level decisions here were made by Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.” As such, it is being filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
“Those decisions were inconsistent with protocols requiring the consent of an investigative target, disclosure to that individual’s attorneys, and the use of the local U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Epstein writes. “Further, Garland and Wray’s decisions regarding the Mar-a-Lago raid were not grounded in ‘social, economic, and political policy’ but in clear dereliction of constitutional principles, inconsistent standards as applied to the prospective plaintiff, and a clear intent to engage in political persecution – not to advance good law enforcement practices ‘susceptible to policy analysis.'”
Trump’s attorney goes on to write that for former President Trump, “the Department of Justice flipped its position and, for the first time in its history, used law enforcement to recover records.”
“The Department of Justice’s mistreatment of President Trump is inconsistent with executive branch practice going back to President Carter, who signed the 1978reforms to the Presidential Records Act. And yet after his presidency, and over forty (40) years ago, President Jimmy Carter found classified materials at his home in Plains, Georgia,” the memo outlines. “Neither President Obama, former Vice President Biden, President Clinton, nor President Carter were subject to a raid of their personal residences, as was President Trump. President Trump’s home was searched for records without any overture from the government to negotiate with him, unlike either Obama or Biden, who retained Presidential Records Act-subject records without any legal consequence.”
How We Got Here
In August 2022, FBI agents descended on Trump’s home in Florida on behalf of the National Archives investigating whether he took classified records from the White House when he left office in January 2021.
As previously reported, Trump’s team wasted no time in characterizing the raid as a weaponization of the Department of Justice and a Democrat attempt to keep him from running for President again in 2024.
Following the raid, Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed to further investigate the matter, resulting in 37 felony counts being brought against Trump by the Biden Administration Department of Justice. The charges included conspiracy to obstruct justice, the willful retention of classified records, and making false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Two days after Trump survived an attempted assassination in July, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon formally dismissed federal charges against the former President in the classified documents case.
READ MORE: Federal Judge dismisses Special Counsel classified documents case against Trump
Judge Cannon ruled that Special Counsel Smith was unlawfully appointed, violating the U.S. Constitution’s appointments clause. She said Smith should have been appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by former President Trump, also ruled that Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violated the Constitution’s appropriations clause given that Congress had not appropriated funding for Smith’s investigation.
Smith has appealed Judge Cannon’s decision.
What’s Next?
Upon receipt of the notice, the Biden Justice Department has 180 days to respond to Trump’s claim and reach a resolution.
Should a resolution not be agreed upon, the case would move to federal court, likely in the Southern District of Florida.
Frank Corder
