Monday morning, around 9 a.m., dozens of FBI agents massed in front of the gate of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's huge property in Palm Beach, Florida.
Search warrant in hand, they surveyed the offices and personal quarters of the billionaire in search, according to the American media, of presidential documents.
"They even broke into my safe," the Republican was indignant, emphasizing the unprecedented aspect of the operation.
We take stock.
Why did the FBI conduct this search?
FBI agents must obtain authorization from a federal judge before conducting a search.
For this, the investigators are supposed to demonstrate to the magistrate that it is likely that a crime has been committed and that the proof of this crime is at the scene of the search, in this case at Mar-a-Lago.
A search of this magnitude - at the home of a former president - should probably be approved at the highest level of the Ministry of Justice, suggest American media, even if nothing has been confirmed on the side of the ministry.
Donald Trump is linked, directly or indirectly, to several ongoing legal cases.
According to the New York Times and the Washington Post, the intervention concerns the potential mishandling of classified documents, which had been sent to Mar-a-Lago.
In February, the National Archives said it had to recover fifteen boxes of documents from Florida that Donald Trump had taken with him when he left Washington in January 2021. In these boxes, letters from Barack Obama and North Korean leader Kim Jong un, but also, according to the Washington Post, several documents marked "secret-defense".
VIDEO.
Donald Trump's house raided by the FBI
The National Archives ensure that Trump had no right to leave with these boxes: under a 1978 law, any American president must transmit all of his e-mails, letters and other work documents to this agency, responsible for keeping them.
What is Donald Trump risking?
Section 2071 of Title 18 of the United States Code prohibits "any person having custody of government documents or records" from "willfully and unlawfully concealing, deleting, mutilating, erasing, ... face up to three years in prison and a fine.
If the culprit holds federal office, he “shall be disqualified from office and may no longer hold office in the United States.”
Trump could therefore, in theory, risk ineligibility if found guilty.
But it is not that simple.
The Constitution sets the eligibility criteria and while it authorizes "Congress to disqualify persons from office under impeachment proceedings, it does not grant such power to the ordinary criminal law”, recalls the New York Times.
What is his reaction?
The billionaire was not in Florida on Monday, he was staying between his Trump Tower in New York and his golf resort in New Jersey.
Furious, he said in a statement that his residence was “under siege” and said he was the victim of “political persecution”, blaming “radical left democrats” who he said “desperately do not want” that he is “running for president in 2024”.
A few hours later, Donald Trump posted a nearly four-minute video on the TruthSocial network, seemingly teasing the announcement of his candidacy for the next presidential election and ending with a promise: “The best is yet to come.
»
Trump posted this on Truth Social an hour ago.
👀 pic.twitter.com/n6tlfOmwG0
— Daniel Bostic (@debostic) August 9, 2022
What are the supporters of the ex-president saying?
Storm among the conservatives.
Without knowing whether Donald Trump broke the law or not, many elected Republicans, as well as Fox News anchors, sided with the former president, accusing Democrats of instrumentalizing federal bureaucracy and demanding an explanation from of the Ministry of Justice.
This is the scene near Mar-A-Lago where some Trump supporters have gathered @nbc6 @NBCNewsNow pic.twitter.com/n9jsnKKO1J
— Cristian Benavides (@cbenavidesTV) August 9, 2022
On Monday evening, supporters of the billionaire gathered near Mar-a-Lago.
They planned, according to media reports, to stay there as long as possible.