In an unprecedented move that’s being called an expression of the degradation of the U.S.’s democratic system, the FBI, the country’s domestic intelligence and security service which over the past few years has been widely accused of acting as a political weapon for the Democratic Party, on Monday raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
The former U.S. president, who a day earlier delivered a keynote address in front of a packed house at CPAC Texas, confirmed late Monday evening that “a large group of FBI agents” had raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, prompting strong reactions from his political allies and leading figures in the country’s conservative movement.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” Trump said in a statement posted to his Truth Social platform. He insisted that the operation, which was approved by Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland, was politically motivated and carried out expressly to hamper his likely bid for president in 2024.
Trump, who said that actions taken by the FBI resembled corruption only seen in “broken, third-world” countries, slammed the raid as “prosecutorial misconduct” and “weaponization of the Justice System.”
News of the raid prompted a torrent of strong reactions from notable public figures, with politicians, media figures, and activists taking to social media to denounce the FBI’s operation.
“The FBI raid on President Trump’s home is an unprecedented political weaponization of the Justice Department,” South Dakota Governor Kirsti Noem wrote on Twitter, before calling the Biden regime’s use of the “criminal justice system” in this manner “un-American.”
The South Dakota governor’s remarks were echoed by Trump’s former attorney Alan Dershowitz, who in an interview with Newsmax, said: “This administration has used the weaponization of the justice system against its political enemies. It has arrested people, denied them bail, put them in handcuffs—used all kinds of techniques that are not usually applied to American citizens. I just hope this raid has the justification. If it doesn’t have the justification, the materials seized in it will be suppressed.”
Lou Dobbs, a longtime conservative media personality and political commentator criticized the operation even more sharply, writing on Twitter: “The FBI and the DOJ have ruthlessly violated the Constitution and law in America. Joe Biden and Merrick Garland are no more than Marxist thugs, not public servants. They’re an outrage against decency, judgment, a former President, and the American people.”
Like Dobbs, Marco Rubio, a Republican Senator from Florida, also slammed the Biden administration.
“Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships but never before in America,” Rubio said.
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, a pro-Trump Republican highlighted that the raid had ‘incidentally’ taken place at the same time the federal corruption probe into Hunter Biden deepens.
“So interesting that this happens right as we are exposing undeniable criminal corruption by Hunter Biden. Weird,” Gaetz wrote.
