US Justice Minister Merrick Garland said on Thursday that he "personally approved" the FBI's spectacular search of former President Donald Trump's home in Florida on Monday, an unprecedented raid that angered the Republican camp.
During an exceptional press conference, the Democratic minister did not reveal anything about the reasons and the results of this operation but he - very unusual - announced that he had requested that the warrant which allowed the search be made public.
Especially, he stressed, that Donald Trump confirmed this search and that the case is of "important public interest", three months before the mid-term legislative elections.
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"They even broke into my safe!"
“: the house of Donald Trump raided by the FBI
“I personally approved the decision to request a search warrant for this case,” Merrick Garland also said during a short television intervention, in which he also denounced “unfounded attacks” from Republicans against his ministry. of Justice and the FBI.
"The department does not take this kind of decision lightly," he said, adding that it had been validated by a federal judge.
Several hypotheses on the reasons for the search
Donald Trump, who had received a copy of the warrant but did not make it public, said in a statement overnight from Thursday to Friday that "not only (he) would not oppose the publication of the documents but (that he) would go further by ENCOURAGING their immediate publication”.
Does the federal police search have to do with the many boxes that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021?
Is it linked to the investigation into his responsibility in the assault on the Capitol?
Does it rather concern the investigations in New York for financial and tax fraud targeting him as well as his children Ivanka and Donald Jr and the Trump Organization?
In asking for the confidentiality of the warrant to be lifted, the Department of Justice cited, without contradicting them, statements by representatives of the former US president indicating that the FBI was looking for archival documents from the White House, possibly classified as a defense secret.
According to the Washington Post on Thursday evening, some of the documents sought relate to nuclear weapons.
Read alsoUnited States: five minutes to understand the FBI search at Trump
This unprecedented search by the FBI of a former president of the United States took place on Monday at the luxury residence of Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Outraged, the 45th American president told his social network Truth Social that his lawyers were cooperating "fully" with the authorities when "suddenly and without warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 a.m., by a VERY large number of officers”.
He complained that FBI agents "searched the First Lady's (Melania) closets and searched through her clothes and personal effects."
On Wednesday, the billionaire had even suggested that the FBI could have "placed" evidence against him during this operation.
Never had a former tenant of the White House been worried by justice in this way.
Trump invokes his right to silence
Republican sympathizers, though known to usually show their support for law enforcement, have criticized the FBI in a virulent way.
The Federal Police Officers Association has called "calls for violence against the police" "unacceptable" and FBI Director Christopher Wray has denounced "baseless attacks" that "undermine respect for the rule of law”.
On Thursday, a gunman who tried to enter an FBI office in Ohio was killed by law enforcement after a long confrontation.
In the wake of the search, the Republican tenors have joined forces with their former president, who did not recognize his defeat in 2020 against Democrat Joe Biden and plans to run again in 2024. Former Vice President Mike Pence, himself a possible rival of Donald Trump in two years, also expressed his "deep concern" after the FBI raid.
Read alsoUnited States: Donald Trump is eyeing 2024 but competition is getting stronger
The Republican businessman was also subjected to a hearing under oath, Wednesday, in the office of the attorney general of New York, Letitia James.
But he invoked, for four hours, more than 440 times his right not to answer questions, under the 5th Amendment of the American Constitution, according to NBC and the Washington Post.
According to one of Donald Trump's lawyers, Ron Fischetti, quoted by NBC television, the only response his client made was to give his name.
The highest magistrate of the State of New York has been investigating since 2019 on suspicion of financial and tax fraud within the family group Trump Organization.
