Congressional allies of Donald Trump appeared to misinterpret standard operating procedure at the FBI on Tuesday with what they called an attempt by President Joe Biden’s administration to assassinate the former president during a 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property in search of secret documents.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor GreeneR-Ga., wrote on
Rep. Paul GosarR-Ariz., posted on X that President Joe Biden “ordered the attack on Trump at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
The messages came shortly after Trump, who was not at Mar-a-Lago on the day of the FBI search, wrote on Truth Social that he had been shown reports showing that “Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their illegal and unconstitutional raid on March -a-Lago, authorized the FBI to use lethal (deadly) force.”
Trump, who has often accused Biden of weaponizing the legal system against him, appeared to refer to recently unsealed court files related to documents found at Mar-a-Lago after the FBI searched them in 2022.
In a rare statement, the FBI said Tuesday evening that it had followed standard procedure during the search of Trump’s property and that no additional steps had been ordered.
“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search, as we do for all search warrants, including a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one has ordered additional steps to be taken and there has been no deviation from the norm in this matter,” the statement said.
Under Justice Department policy, law enforcement may only use force when no other safe alternatives appear to exist. The policy goes on to say that deadly force is only permitted “when necessary, that is, when the officer reasonably suspects that the person using such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or another person entails.”
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening, and spokespeople for Greene and Gosar did not elaborate further on their messages.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he intentionally withheld national defense information related to classified documents discovered at his Florida estate after he left office and that he directed a Mar-a-Lago employee remove the security video from the property. The trial has been postponed indefinitely.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
