Shocking FBI Trump Raid Docs Declassified

Recently declassified emails between the Biden FBI and DOJ reveal that officials didn’t believe they had probable cause for a search warrant to raid President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home – but did it anyway.

It certainly reeks of the Deep State political prosecution of Trump we suspected. Now the question is: What was FBI Director Christopher Wray’s role – or at least level of awareness – in the raid?

As reported by Fox News:

The FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in 2022, but moved forward amid pressure from the Biden Justice Department, with an official saying he didn’t “give a [expletive] about the optics” of the search, newly declassified documents reviewed by Fox News Digital reveal.

Fox News Digital reviewed emails between FBI and Justice Department officials in the months leading up to the August 2022 raid of Mar-a-Lago, with FBI officials expressing concerns about a lack of probable cause to execute the search warrant on the then-former president’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

“Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents,” an FBI official serving as an assistant special agent in charge, wrote to another FBI official, Anthony Riedlinger. “From the interviews, WFO has gathered information suggesting that there may be additional boxes (presumably of the same type as were sent back to NARA in January) at Mar-a-Lago.”

“WFO has been drafting a search warrant affidavit related to these potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information is single source, has not been corroborated, and may be dated,” the official continues. . . . “Even as we continue down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former president’s attorney, (stating that the FBI and DOJ are readying a search warrant, and have developed information that there are more documents at Mar a Lago), ought not to be discounted,” the official wrote.

According to the 27-page release obtained by Fox News and made public through the oversight efforts of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, there were significant concerns inside the FBI – especially within the Washington Field Office – about whether probable cause even existed to justify the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.

Let that sink in for a moment.

These weren’t political commentators or outside critics raising red flags after the fact. These were FBI officials, in writing, telling the DOJ that they did not believe probable cause had been established. In one striking email, the Washington Field Office stated plainly that it “did not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar a Lago.”

Even more telling, FBI personnel questioned whether the entire approach was counterproductive. If the goal was truly to recover classified materials quickly and protect national security, they argued, then months spent fixated on forcing a search warrant made little sense – especially when no witnesses had reported seeing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after records were voluntarily returned in June of 2022.

As one internal email put it bluntly: “At what point is it fair to table this?” The investigation, agents warned, was consuming excessive time and resources without producing new facts to support probable cause.

What’s striking here is not just the disagreement, so much as how persistent and consistent it was. These concerns date back to early June, more than two months before the August 8 raid. Draft after draft of a warrant affidavit circulated, while FBI officials repeatedly noted that the information relied on was single-source, uncorroborated, and potentially outdated. The DOJ pushed forward anyway.

And then we really need to talk about the optics, or rather, the open dismissal of them. Just days before the raid, an FBI official documented that a senior DOJ official, George Toscas, reportedly said that he “frankly doesn’t give a [expletive] about the optics” of executing a search warrant at the home of a former President. And based on what happened next, he clearly didn’t.

That quote matters because it directly spits in the face of the American people, who expect restraint, care, and respect for constitutional boundaries from our federal agencies.

In fact, the FBI itself appeared concerned enough about optics, safety, and professionalism that it explicitly asked to handle the execution of the warrant without heavy DOJ involvement. The reason? They feared DOJ officials had already built antagonistic relationships with President Trump’s legal team and that last-minute DOJ contact could escalate tensions unnecessarily.

With these documents now public, Americans are left to wrestle with an uncomfortable reality: There was significant internal resistance, ignored warnings, and an aggressive push from the DOJ despite constitutional concerns raised by career FBI professionals.

At the same time, these documents also prove that not everyone inside the FBI was acting as a partisan actor or blindly marching in lockstep. Some agents and officials spoke up, questioned authority, proposed less intrusive alternatives, and tried to slow something they believed was going too far. That matters.

Trust in institutions doesn’t get rebuilt overnight, and it certainly doesn’t happen by pretending mistakes – or overreach – never occurred. But transparency helps. Oversight helps. And accountability helps.

If probable cause can be questioned, ignored, and overridden at the highest levels once, it can happen again – and to anyone. And that’s something every American, regardless of political affiliation, should take seriously.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of this latest revelation regarding the raid on Mar-a-Lago, including a discussion with U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Ric Grenell, who offered his own reaction to this latest news.

Watch the full broadcast below: