Former President Donald Trump said he returned to his Florida home late Sunday to find Mar-a-Lago “ransacked” and accused FBI agents of traipsing through his bedroom without removing their shoes when they raided his ritzy resort home last month.
“Arrived in Florida last night and had a long and detailed chance to check out the scene of yet another government ’crime,’ the FBI’s Raid and Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago. I guess they don’t think there is a Fourth Amendment anymore, and to them, there isn’t,” the 45th president wrote Monday on his Truth Social media platform.
“In any event, after what they have done, the place will never be the same. It was ’ransacked,’and in far different condition than the way I left it. Many Agents – And they didn’t even take off their shoes in my bedroom. Nice!!!” he continued.
The FBI raided the former president’s palatial oceanfront resort in Palm Beach on Aug. 8 while he was away at his golf course in Bedminster, NJ, and seized boxes of materials he removed from the White House, including documents marked classified and top secret.
Hours after the raid, Trump accused FBI agents of breaking into his safe, rifling through his drawers and even going through wife Melania’s closet.
Trump, who has blasted the raid as a “witch hunt,” told his followers earlier Sunday that he would be returning to Florida and would examine the damage firsthand.
“I’ll soon be heading to the scene of the unwarranted, unjust, and illegal Raid and Break-In of my home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. I’ll be able to see for myself the results of the unnecessary ransacking of rooms and other areas of the house,” he said on his account.
“It has already been proven that so much has been wrongfully taken, it is not a ‘pretty thing.’ So sad! The 4th Amendment, and much more, has been totally violated, a grave invasion of privacy. I will keep the American public informed on TRUTH!” he added.
Since the raid, the case has been caught up in a legal battle between Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department, resulting in US District Judge Aileen Cannon ordering a special master to examine the documents to determine whether they are shielded by attorney-client or executive privilege.
Judge Raymond Dearie will hold a hearing in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday for a preliminary conference between Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department.
Cannon appointed Dearie, 78, as the third-party arbiter and effectively blocked the feds from examining the roughly 300 classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago until the review is concluded.