In a prime example of what Donald Trump is riding on as his defense against cxriminal charges we find out the FBI, WAS wooried about actually showing up at Trump’s home to finally take back government files that Trump vacummed up leaving office….
Anybody else would have had agents moving the suspect out of the premises while they did their job…
But NOT Donald Trump….
As a ex-President, Bigger that life itself?
The Bureau was hesitant….
They had confrontations with Trump as President , he fired a former Director and tried to put that guy, Comey and another FBI boss in jail…
Donald Trump’s intimidation (and get even) efforts have reached as far up the government chain as worrying the FBI and now the current Justice Dept….And?…He gets a bonus as a ex-President statusas gravy….
It is standard FBI practice to remove and detain a homeowner while their property is being searched. And while the nation’s top law enforcement officials were willing to take the once-inconceivable step of getting a court order to search not just Trump’s office but also his residence, they wanted to avoid doing anything that required them to physically remove Trump from his home, leaving the 45th commander in chief standing in his driveway like a suspected drug dealer or white-collar crook.
The FBI also was wary of the remote possibility of a “blue on blue” confrontation — between the federal agents searching the location and the Secret Service agents who guard the former president, according to people familiar with the matter, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions….
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The Mar-a-Lago case was very different. There was no ladder for investigators to climb, because the potential target was plainly Trump, suspected of taking highly classified documents when he left the White House and keeping them at Mar-a-Lago, his residence and private club in South Florida, all in apparent violation of the most basic standards of handling national security secrets.
While the Jan. 6 investigation was drawing more headlines, fueled by a series of closely watched prime-time hearings on Capitol Hill, the Justice Department’s decisions about the Mar-a-Lago case put the agency more directly on a collision course with Trump. The nation’s top law enforcement officials knew any misstep could have devastating long-term consequences for the Justice Department, the FBI and the country….
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Conscious of painful rifts between Justice Department leadership and the FBI during the Trump and Obama eras, he hoped to ensure there was no daylight between the investigators and the prosecutors on this case — and that prosecutors, not investigators, were the ultimate decision-makers.
But given Trump’s many prior battles with the Justice Department and the FBI over investigations into links between Russian officials and members of his 2016 campaign, his transition team and his administration; and possible obstruction of those investigations, officials had little doubt they would come under sustained public attack from Trump and his supporters if they moved forward, people familiar with the situation said….
image….Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post