By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland called former president on Thursday Donald TrumpThe FBI’s claims that the FBI had permission to shoot him during the 2022 search of his Florida club are “false” and “extremely dangerous.”
Garland told reporters that Trump and some of his allies were referring to a “standard operations plan” that limits when agents can use deadly force when executing search warrants.
The FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022 to retrieve classified material he kept after leaving office. Agents have found a slew of data that led to one of the four criminal charges Trump is currently facing.
Before the search, the FBI drafted a policy statement, made public this week, that authorized law enforcement agencies to use deadly force only if an officer or other person was immediately threatened. Trump was not present when the search took place.
Trump, the Republican challenger to the Democrats President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election, falsely claimed in fundraising messages sent by his campaign this week that the FBI had permission to carry out an assassination attempt.
“TRUMP’S BREAKING: BIDEN’S DOJ WAS AUTHORIZED TO SHOOT ME!” read an email titled “I almost escaped death.”
“It’s just been revealed that Biden’s DOJ was authorized to use DEADLY FORCE for their HORRIBLE raid on Mar-a-Lago.”
Garland, who oversees the FBI as attorney general, said such policies are routine and were also in place during consensual searches of Biden’s homes conducted by the FBI in a separate investigation into classified documents.
“This accusation is false and extremely dangerous,” Garland told reporters at a news conference announcing a lawsuit against concert promoter Live Nation.
The use of force document was among hundreds of pages of documents unsealed this week in the criminal case accusing Trump of unlawfully withholding sensitive government documents after leaving the White House in 2021. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
His defense team is seeking to suppress evidence seized during the search, arguing it violates Trump’s rights under the U.S. Constitution.
FBI agents seized about 100 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago during the court-authorized search, which came after Trump thwarted government demands to return the documents, prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, additional reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Scott Malone and Chizu Nomiyama)
