Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the Justice Department’s handling of the FBI raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home while also hinting at criticism toward the former president for taking documents after he left the White House.
During a private event hosted by the Israel Heritage Foundation on Sunday, Pompeo addressed questions about “what President Trump is up to” more than a year after leaving office.
“He’s down in Mar-a-Lago, watching the FBI raid his home,” Pompeo answered with a laugh. “What happened there is outrageous.”
SOLE COMPLAINT: TRUMP ACCUSES FBI OF NOT REMOVING SHOES DURING MAR-A-LAGO RAID
However, the former secretary of state acknowledged that materials should not have been taken from the White House, noting that “no one gets to keep classified information outside of a place classified information should be. That is certainly true.”
“But for the Department of Justice to behave the way they did by raiding the home of a former president is absolutely outrageous,” Pompeo added. “And it is politicizing a Department of Justice that I fear is headed in a way that is not consistent with the understandings that we all have of the rule of law here in the United States.”
The comments on Sunday came on the same day Trump returned to his Mar-a-Lago residence for the first time since the Aug. 8 warranted search, calling it a “Raid and Break-in of my home.” The former president has repeatedly criticized the FBI for its raid of his Mar-a-Lago home, previously calling the conduct a “deep and ugly search” done by “vicious monsters, controlled by radical-left scoundrels.”
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The FBI seized more than 11,000 documents during its raid of the Mar-a-Lago residence, with several being considered the highest level of classification. The warranted search was part of an investigation by the Justice Department into whether Trump violated the Espionage Act by taking classified records after leaving the White House.
However, the department must put its investigation on hold while a third-party special master reviews the documents to ensure they do not violate any client-attorney or executive privileges. Raymond Dearie, the appointed special master, has until Nov. 30 to complete his review.