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A Timeline of Trump’s False and Misleading Statements on the Mar-a-Lago Search

Since former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida home was raided by federal agents last week, he told social media platform Truth Social that Democrats, the FBI, and others are considered enemies. I posted dozens of messages about

These statements reflect a strategy Trump has long used to address controversy, in turn denying wrongdoing while turning his attention elsewhere. Some messages also reflect his penchant for making false and misleading claims.

Here are some of the false and unsupported statements he has made since the FBI raid.

Monday and Tuesday, August 8th and 9th

Days after the raid, Trump’s allies focus attention About the FBI search warrant for his home at the Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Beach.These warrants usually remain sealed unless prosecuted, but many of his supporters was suggested The FBI did not release it because the investigation political motivation.

Trump was free to rescind the warrant at any time. Instead, he repeatedly linked the White House to the search and suggested that President Biden or other Democrats knew about it.

“Biden knew all about this,” he wrote on Aug. 9. He provided no proof.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Biden not given Search notice.

Wednesday, August 10th

Trump said his lawyers and other Mar-a-Lago officials were not authorized to oversee the search, suggesting the lack of oversight could have allowed the FBI to plant evidence. did.

He wrote to Truth Social that agents don’t want witnesses “to see what they’re doing, what they’re doing, and preferably ‘not planting’.”

But Trump’s lawyer said in a TV interview The former president watched the search from New York, from video provided by security cameras inside Mar-a-Lago.

Trump also targeted former President Barack Obama, falsely claiming he took more than 30 million documents to Chicago after his predecessor left the White House. In a subsequent post, Trump increased that number to 33 million documents.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) replied with a statementsaid, “NARA has moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to NARA facilities in the Chicago area, where they are controlled exclusively by NARA.”



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Thursday, August 11th

After reports showed the FBI wanted documents related to a “special access program,” Trump said the FBI could have asked for the documents without a raid.

He posted to Truth Social that the FBI had already asked him to install additional padlocks in areas where secure documents were kept.

“My lawyer and agent were fully cooperating and had a very good relationship,” he wrote on Aug. 11.

Trump received a subpoena seeking additional documents this spring, and federal officials met with Trump and his attorney, Evan Corcoran, at Mar-a-Lago. At least one of Trump’s lawyers signed a written statement after the visit.

But an inventory of materials taken from Trump’s home during a raid last week showed agents had seized 11 sets of classified or secret documents.

Friday, August 12th

After a Florida court issued the warrant, accompanying logs showed that 11 sets of classified documents had been recovered from Mar-a-Lago. The warrant also indicated that the investigation was related to espionage law violations.

Trump later suggested the documents seized by the FBI were legitimate.

“First, all declassified,” he wrote.

Although the president has broad powers to declassify information while in office, espionage law violations still apply to declassified documents.

Saturday and Sunday, August 13th and 14th

In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump stepped up his criticism of the FBI, saying it has a “long and relentless history of corruption.” He cited his allegations of electoral interference during the 2016 election as discredited.

Trump has since returned to his earlier, unsubstantiated allegations that the documents may have been planted by the FBI.

“There was no way of knowing if what they were taking was legal or if it was a ‘plant,’” he wrote. “After all, this was the FBI!”

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