Declassified Emails Reveal FBI Doubts Ahead of Mar-a-Lago Raid

by Emmitt Barry, with reporting from Washington D.C. Bureau Staff

(Worthy News) – Newly declassified FBI emails show that bureau officials believed they lacked sufficient evidence to justify the August 2022 raid on then–former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, raising new questions about the Justice Department’s role in authorizing the unprecedented search.

According to the emails, attorneys in the FBI’s Washington field office warned they did not have probable cause—such as witness testimony or new facts—to support a sweeping search for classified documents. Justice Department lawyers under the Biden administration overruled those concerns and pressed the FBI to execute a warrant covering the entire property, despite internal objections.

The raid, carried out on Aug. 8, 2022, occurred while Mr. Trump was widely viewed as a likely 2024 presidential candidate. Agents searched multiple areas of the estate, including offices, storage areas, and personal spaces, confiscating boxes later used by Special Counsel Jack Smith in a criminal case against Mr. Trump.

That prosecution ultimately collapsed in 2024 when a federal judge dismissed the charges, ruling that Mr. Smith had been unlawfully appointed. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley called the newly released emails “shocking,” describing the raid as a “miscarriage of justice.”

The emails also show FBI officials sought to delay the search and continue negotiations with Mr. Trump’s attorney, Evan Corcoran, noting that Mr. Trump had already returned boxes of documents and expressed willingness to cooperate. Justice Department officials, however, were described as “adamant” that no accommodation be made, dismissing concerns about optics surrounding the raid.

Now serving as the current U.S. president, Mr. Trump has long maintained that he had authority to declassify the documents in question and called the raid unnecessary and politically motivated. Congressional scrutiny is expected to continue, with House Judiciary Committee investigators preparing to question Mr. Smith behind closed doors.

Latest Worthy News