Melania Trump said the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 angered her, calling the execution of a search warrant by federal agents on Trump’s Florida estate an “invasion of privacy.”
“It made me angry, yes,” she told Fox News in an interview that aired Thursday morning. “Invasion of privacy. And the way it was done was — I was really surprised.”
When asked about the condition of her home after the raid, Trump said she saw “some unpleasant things that nobody wants to see.”
“And then you get angry, because no one should have to put up with that kind of stuff. Someone — I don’t even know who or how many people — went through my stuff,” she said.
Trump has previously called the Mar-a-Lago search an “invasion of privacy.” In one of her recent videos posted to social media, she appeared to suggest that the search was unconstitutional and, more ominously, that it “serves as a warning to all Americans, a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected.”
Not surprisingly, that language echoes Donald Trump’s attacks on the FBI investigation. The former president called the Mar-a-Lago search “illegal” and “unconstitutional” and has repeatedly falsely accused President Joe Biden of “weaponizing” federal law enforcement to punish him. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has condemned such claims as “false” and “extremely dangerous.”
The Fox News interview was the first television interview with the former first lady in more than two years and comes just days before the release of her untitled memoir.
Melania Trump, who is notoriously reserved about her private life and shares her husband’s disdain for the media, has said her memoir will “clarify the facts” about herself and present “the truth.” Based on the book’s marketing — which included cryptic black-and-white videos on her social media that hint at conspiracies against her husband — the memoir could touch on her past modeling work, the media attention to her time in the White House and her husband’s many legal troubles.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
