‘Hillary was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 emails’: Trump tears into the FBI

Donald Trump has accused the FBI of double standards after they raided his Mar-a-Lago estate to obtain presidential records – but ‘allowed Hillary Clinton to delete and acid wash 33,000 E-mails’.

The former president reacted with fury to news that his Mar-a-Lago estate was searched by the FBI, while he was in New York City.

Trump, 76, said his Florida home was ‘under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.’

‘They even broke into my safe!’ he said.

‘The political persecution of President Donald J. Trump has been going on for years, with the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, and so much more, it just never ends,’ he said in a statement. 

‘It is political targeting at the highest level!

‘Hillary Clinton was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 E-mails AFTER they were subpoenaed by Congress. 

‘Absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable. She even took antique furniture, and other items from the White House.

‘I stood up to America’s bureaucratic corruption, I restored power to the people, and truly delivered for our Country, like we have never seen before. 

‘The establishment hated it.’

Donald Trump is pictured with Hillary Clinton during their first presidential debate, in September 2016. On Monday he accused the FBI of targeting him but giving her more lenient treatment

Hillary Clinton’s emails were stored on a private server, against government protocol, and in March 2015 the company that maintained the server deleted the archive mailbox.

In his lengthy statement, Trump said the raid was a sign of ‘dark times for our Nation’.

‘Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,’ he said, noting that his lawyers had cooperated with those seeking return of presidential records removed from the White House when Trump moved out.

News of the transfer of the documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago – which is against the law, stating that all presidential correspondence and documentation must be handed to the National Archives – first broke in February.

At the time, the National Archives said some had been returned.

On Monday, as news of the raid broke, CNN reported that investigators had visited Mar-a-Lago on June 8 and met with Trump’s lawyers to discuss the return of the documents.

It is unclear why they now decided to launch a raid to claim them, and Trump said he was angered by the turn of events. 

‘After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,’ he said. 

‘It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections. 

‘Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. 

‘Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.’ 

He added: ‘What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee?’ 

His son Eric accused the current administration of wanting to ‘attack Biden’s greatest threat’.

Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, he revealed he was the one who alerted his father to the raid, and said his father’s office was ransacked but that agents found ‘nothing in the safe.’ 

The raid was said to be court authorized and the FBI gave US Secret Service agents at Mar-a-Lago advance notice and they cooperated letting them into the property, NBC News reported. 

Eric Trump, who was spotted at Trump Tower on Monday, said he was the one that got the call on the raid and told his father about it

While appearing on Hannity on Monday evening, Eric Trump raged against Democrats as he detailed his involvement in letting his father Donald know of the FBI raid

Eric Trump alleged that Monday’s raid of Mar-a-Lago was orchestrated by the Joe Biden-led White House, who he said see his father as their biggest threat

President Joe Biden’s White House had no heads up on the raid. 

Senior White House officials found out about the FBI’s Mar a Lago raid on Twitter, the New York Times reported.

Eric Trump, who was spotted at Trump Tower on Monday, said he was the one that got the call on the raid and told his father about it. 

‘I was the guy who got the call this morning and I called my father and let him know it happened, and I was involved all day,’ he told Hannity. 

‘Welcome to politics in the 2020s.

‘To have 30 FBI agents – actually more than that – descend on Mar-a-Lago, give absolutely, you know, no notice, go through the gates, start ransacking an office, ransacking a closet – you know, they broke into a safe. 

‘He didn’t even have anything in the safe. I mean, give me a break.’

He said the White House was behind the raid.

‘This didn’t come from a local FBI field office in Palm beach, Florida. 

‘You know this came from? This came from one place and one building, and that is the White House in Washington, D.C. They want to attack a guy who they view as his greatest threat, Biden’s greatest threat.’

Donald Trump was also spotted leaving Trump Tower in New York on Monday night after announcing his home had been raided by the FBI, reportedly as part of an investigation into whether the former president took classified documents with him when he left the White House. 

He waved and gave his signature thumbs’ up to the gathered, but didn’t comment on the investigation as he got into his SUV, surrounded by Secret Service agents. 

Trump didn’t say specifically what the federal agents were looking for, just that his Florida home was ‘under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents’

He waved and gave his signature thumbs’ up to the gathered, but didn’t comment on the investigation as he got into his SUV, surrounded by Secret Service agents

But the investigation is focused on material that Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, the New York Times reported, specifically if he has classified information in his private possession, which would be a violation of federal law.

Trump took 15 boxes of material with him in January 2021 after he left Washington D.C. 

The boxes were returned to the National Archives a year later in January 2022 but agents on Monday were looking to see if Trump had additional presidential records or any classified documents at his South Florida estate, the AP reported. 

The search focused on the area of the club where Trump’s offices and personal quarters are, CNN reported, noting Trump’s personal attorney Christinia Bobb was present during the search.

And, during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, Trump’s attorney showed federal investigators documents that were being kept on site, including some that were marked classified, the network noted. 

Lara Trump told Fox News the former president liked keeping clippings and photos. 

‘Look, my father-in-law, as anybody knows, who’s been around him a lot, loves to save things like newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, photographs, documents that he had every authority … to take from the White House.’

She called the raid an attempt to hurt him as ‘he’s going to announce any day that he’s running for president in 2024.’ 

The raid comes as Donald Trump is considering another bid for the presidency – and his actions after the 2020 election, where he tried to invalidate Biden’s victory, are under investigation by lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 

It began Monday morning and took several hours. 

It is highly unusual for a federal raid to take place at the residence of a former commander in chief.

Trump took 15 boxes of material with him in January 2021 after he left Washington D.C. The boxes were returned to the National Archives a year later in January 2022 but agents on Monday were looking to see if Trump had additional material; above workers move boxes out of the Trump White House on January 14, 2021

Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday night

The Justice Department wouldn’t say whether Attorney General Merrick Garland had personally authorized the search but it’s highly unlikely a raid on a former president would take place without the AG giving it the stamp of approval.

The FBI gave US Secret Service agents at Mar-a-Lago advance notice and they cooperated letting them into the property, NBC News reported. The Secret Service agents but did not take part in investigation or search.

This meant the FBI did not have to break into the property or bust down any doors. 

A search warrant does not suggest that criminal charges are near or even expected but it would have to be court authorized. 

Workers move boxes from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building into a truck on the White House grounds, before the departure of President Donald Trump on January 14, 2021

Police stand outside an entrance to Mar-a-Lago on Monday night

Trump’s Florida home: Mar-a-Lago, where agents were reportedly investigating whether Trump took classified documents with him when he left the White House

Trump supporters gathered in front of Mar-a-Lago on Monday night

Donald Trump was at his golf club in Bedminister, N.J., on Sunday, according to this photo of him posing with a newly engaged couple that was posted to social media

Boxes were spotted just outside the West Wing in the days leading up to former President Donald Trump’s last day in office in January 2021

People wait for a moving van as they move boxes out of the Eisenhower Executive Office building on January 14, 2021

Among the documents Trump reportedly took with him when he left the White House were correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Trump has described as ‘beautiful letters’; above the two leaders at the DMZ in June 2019

Trump also reportedly took with him the letter Barack Obama left him in the Oval Office when Obama’s presidency concluded- above President Obama and President-elect Trump in the Oval Office on November 10, 2016

Some Republicans were immediately critical of the raid.

‘Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships But never before in America,’ wrote Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on Twitter.

Trump insisted, at the time, that the transfer of boxes to the National Archives and Records Administration was done ‘openly and willingly’. 

‘Following collaborative and respectful discussions, the National Archives and Records Administration openly and willingly arranged with President Trump for the transport of boxes that contained letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and various articles,’ he wrote in the third person.

He added: ‘Some of this information will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People.

In response to the seizure of materials, the House Oversight and Reform Committee opened a probe into Trump’s improperly removing or destroying White House documents. 

‘Removing or concealing government records is a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison,’ the congressional letter to NARA Archivist David Ferriero noted.

Trump also was known throughout his presidency to rip up pieces of paper, which is a violation of the Presidential Records Act.

The Presidential Records Act requires the White House to preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers the president touches and send them to the National Archives for safekeeping.

But Trump had the odd habit of ripping up papers when he’s done with them – what some aides call his unofficial ‘filing system.’

A group of staffers in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building was in charge of taping the records back together. 

Fragments of paper collected from the Oval Office and the White House’s private residence were sent to records management office across the street from the White House to to be re-assembled with scotch tape and then sent on to the National Archives to be properly filed.

The former president also reported flushed records.

Maggie Haberman, a New York Times White House correspondent, claims in her upcoming book on the Trump presidency that Trump would give records the royal flush.

On Monday she claimed to have obtained pictures of presidential notes stuffed into the residence toilets from a former White House official who worked under the previous administration. 

The images published by Axios on Monday purportedly show two sets of notes in the toilets, one of which is said to be located in a White House bathroom, and the other in an undisclosed location abroad during a foreign presidential trip – though the papers appeared to be handwritten rather than official documents. 

One of the ripped up papers on top of a stack in the toilet shows what appears to be lawmakers names scrawled down in all capital letters in black sharpie.

Two names can be seen clearly on the paper – Rogers and Stefanik – although the rest of the torn up papers are mostly illegible. 

It’s likely the names are referencing Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama and GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, a Trump defender.

Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich told Axios: ‘You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan.’

‘There’s enough people willing to fabricate stories like this in order to impress the media class — a media class who is willing to run with anything, as long as it anti-Trump,’ he added. 

Maggie Haberman, a New York Times White House correspondent who closely followed Trump during his presidency for an upcoming book, claimed to have obtained pictures of handwritten notes stuffed into the bowls. She says this image is from a White House toilet

The images published by Axios purportedly show two sets of notes in the toilets, though they do not appear to be official documents. This image, Haberman claims, is from a toilet on an overseas trip

Trump is involved in several other legal matters, including the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the January 6th insurrection. 

And a district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia is investigation whether Trump and his close associates sought to interfere in that state’s election, which Biden won.

Trump is also being probed by various criminal and civil investigations at the state level in New York.