Former US president, Donald Trump has claimed his passports were ‘stolen’ in the FBI raid at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida last week, warning that terrible things will happen in the US if the ‘temperature doesn’t come down.’
He called it an ‘assault on a political opponent.’
‘Wow. In the raid by the FBI or Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never before seen in our country. Third World,’ he wrote on his Truth Social account.
Trump has a blue passport issued to U.S. citizens and a red ‘diplomatic’ passport issued for official government travel.
If truly his passports were seized, it means he would not be able to travel outside of the United States.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said he ‘personally approved’ the raid, which was part of a federal investigation into documents Trump took with him after he left the White House. According to federal law, any presidential records are the property of the federal government.
The White House said the president found out about the raid from public reports with the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying on Sunday that President Biden hasn’t been briefed on it at all.
‘Not been briefed. We have not interfered,’ she said on ABC’s This Week.
During the raid of Trump’s Florida home on Monday August 8, FBI agents took 11 sets of classified documents, photographs and other files marked ‘top secret’ among boxes of items.
In all, FBI agents took 27 boxes of documents, according to the federal warrant.
Federal law enforcement agencies have warned of ‘an increase in threats and acts of violence’ directed at FBI personnel after agents executed a search warrant on Trump’s Florida home.
Days after the raid, a man who posted regularly on Trump’s Truth Social site tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati field office in Ohio, armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a nail gun. He fled the scene and was later killed in a standoff.
Also on social media, there has been increased discussions about a civil war and threats of violence against FBI agents.
Speaking on Fox News Trump said that he has offered to do ‘whatever he can’ to fix the simmering tensions because people are ‘so angry at what is taking place’.
Trump told Fox News that he had his representatives reach out to the Department of Justice to offer assistance.
‘People are so angry at what is taking place,’ Trump told Fox when asked about reaching out. ‘Whatever we can do to help—because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.’
He added: ‘The people of this country are not going to stand for another scam.’