Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are asking the White House, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the FBI to preserve and produce documents relating to the decision to execute a search warrant at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last week.
In the Monday letters sent to White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, the committee’s Republicans suggest that the search, which recovered classified information, was politically motivated.
“The FBI’s unprecedented raid of President Trump’s residence is a shocking escalation of the Biden Administration’s weaponization of law-enforcement resources against its political opponents,” read the letters led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), ranking member on the committee. “We will settle for nothing but your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”
The Republicans seek communications “referring or relating” to the decision to execute and seek the search warrant.
They ask for any communications among the DOJ, FBI and Executive Office of the President about the search, as well as for any of the communication between the three entities and the National Archives and Records Administration about the warrant.
Unsealed court records relating to the raid reveal that Trump was suspected of violating portions of the Espionage Act and laws relating to destruction or concealing of documents, and the theft or destruction of government documents. Investigators listed top secret documents as among the 33 items of material recovered from the search.
Republicans have argued that the DOJ had several other options to try to retrieve the documents, and they have repeatedly raised suspicions that President Biden is “weaponizing” the DOJ against a likely future political opponent.
The administration has said that Biden was not briefed about the raid before it happened and that no one at the White House was given a “heads up” about it.
Garland said last week that he personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee also asked for documents or communications referring to use of confidential human sources in connection to the raid. An affidavit used to justify the search remains sealed to the public.
The Republicans gave an Aug. 29 deadline to produce the material.
GOP members on other committees are also seeking information related to the raid.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have asked the DOJ to give the committee, but not necessarily the public, information regarding the affidavit used to justify the search. House Oversight and Reform Committee Republicans have sent a letter to the National Archives asking about its role in the FBI’s search.