‘Not one single bit’: Biden insists he had NO advance warning of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago

President Joe Biden said forcefully on Wednesday that he had ‘zero’ advance notice of the FBI’s raid on former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago – after a newly revealed document showed archival officials contacting White House lawyers about material that was earlier handed over by Trump.

‘I didn’t have any advanced notice. None. Zero. Not one single bit,’ Biden said, making a zero sign with his hand for emphasis.’

Biden’s statement reflects what White House officials said earlier this month after the extraordinary raid, where FBI agents carted off 10 boxes of material, including some that the government says was at top classification levels.

The White House has repeatedly said Biden did not know in advance about the raid, which was authorized by Attorney General Merrick Garland, in advance. 

But it also follows a new paper trail that is revealing a fight over access to documents that Trump had earlier handed over, after keeping them at Mar-a-Lago for about a year.

The latest development, a letter by the acting head of the National Archives to Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran from May 2021, details the FBI’s push to review 15 boxes of material that Trump returned from Mar-a-Lago.

Trump was seeking to make a ‘protective assertion of executive privilege.’

Acting Archivist of the U.S. Debra Steidel Wall wrote that it was the incumbent president who could assert privilege – and also revealed communications with the White House counsel’s office over the matter.

‘The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel,’ she wrote.

That has prompted new questions about the extent of information White House lawyers had, if any, about the FBI’s investigation, which has expanded to include whether provisions of the Espionage Act governing handling and removal of documents.

 The latest letter, but out by Trump-friendly reported John Solomon, pointed to a White House role in matters about determining privilege. The archivist determined that it is the sitting president, not his predecessor, who can make the privilege determinations and rejected the request by Trump’s team.

Trump continued to push back on Wednesday, blasting out an email linking to a Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined: ‘The Trump Warrant Had No Legal Basis.’

Some of the material that agents gathered in the August 8 raid is ‘extraordinarily sensitive,’ the Washington Post reported, and could reveal secrets about U.S. intelligence gathering methods. A source called it ‘among the most sensitive secrets we hold.’

Steidel Wall’s May 10 letter states that the the first cache of material Trump finally gave back after months of negotiations contained 700 pages of documents and 100 classified documents.

It still isn’t clear how boxes of materials that had been in the White House got to Mar-a-Lago, the Florida club that Trump made his domicile during his presidency.

The president oversaw the process himself, ‘and did so with great secrecy, declining to show some items even to top aides,’ according to the Post.

‘The Justice Department conducts investigations independently, and we leave any law enforcement matters to them,’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said August 9, the day after the raid, saying Biden was not briefed on or aware of the raid.