AG Garland: Donald Trump deadly force allegation in Mar-a-Lago search 'false,' 'dangerous'
Source: USA Today
Published 1:37 p.m. ET May 23, 2024 | Updated 1:39 p.m. ET May 23, 2024
Attorney General Merrick Garland called former President Donald Trumps accusation that the Justice Department authorized the potential use of deadly force during the search of Mar-a-Lago a false and extremely dangerous allegation.
Trump has long complained about the FBI search for classified documents in August 2022, which led to charges he unlawfully hoarded national defense records after leaving the White House. He wasn't at the resort when it was searched. On Tuesday, the release of sealed documents in the case showed Trump still had classified documents in his bedroom at Mar-a-Lago four months after an FBI search of the Florida estate.
The documents also provided new details of alleged efforts by Trump and his co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira to obstruct the investigation, through what the government called a "shell game" of moving documents around Mar-a-Lago to avoid being found by federal authorities. Trump complained in an all-caps post Tuesday that the Justice Department authorized the FBI to use deadly (lethal) force during the search.
Garland disputed the characterization at a news conference Thursday, saying FBI agents followed standard policy. That allegation is false and it is extremely dangerous, Garland said. The document that is being referred to in the allegation is a Justice Department standard policy limiting the use of force.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/23/mar-a-lago-deadly-force-trump-merrick-garland/73819530007/
Blue Owl
(53,845 posts)GreenWave
(8,543 posts)maxsolomon
(34,559 posts)Instead of waiting 2 years to launch an investigation.
Guess it got under their skin enough to hold a presser.
BumRushDaShow
(138,248 posts)And more specfically - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3243366
By Glenn Thrush and Adam Goldman
Reporting from Washington
Published March 22, 2024 Updated March 27, 2024
After being sworn in as attorney general in March 2021, Merrick B. Garland gathered his closest aides to discuss a topic too sensitive to broach in bigger groups: the possibility that evidence from the far-ranging Jan. 6 investigation could quickly lead to former President Donald J. Trump and his inner circle. At the time, some in the Justice Department were pushing for the chance to look at ties between pro-Trump rioters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, his allies who had camped out at the Willard Hotel, and possibly Mr. Trump himself.
Mr. Garland said he would place no restrictions on their work, even if the evidence leads to Trump, according to people with knowledge of several conversations held over his first months in office. Follow the connective tissue upward, said Mr. Garland, adding a directive that would eventually lead to a dead end: Follow the money. With that, he set the course of a determined and methodical, if at times dysfunctional and maddeningly slow, investigation that would yield the indictment of Mr. Trump on four counts of election interference in August 2023.
(snip)
People around Mr. Garland, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Justice Department affairs, say there would be no case against Mr. Trump had Mr. Garland not acted decisively. And any perception that the department had made Mr. Trump a target from the outset, without exploring other avenues, would have doomed the investigation. Dont confuse thoughtful with unduly cautious, said a former deputy attorney general, Jamie S. Gorelick, who sent Mr. Garland, then her top aide, to oversee the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He was fearless. You could see it then, and you could see it when he authorized the search at Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Garlands allies point to how, by the summer of 2021, the attorney general and his powerful deputy, Lisa O. Monaco, were so frustrated with the pace of the work that they created a team to investigate Trump allies who gathered at the Willard Hotel ahead of Jan. 6 John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Roger J. Stone Jr. and possible connections to the Trump White House, according to former officials. That team would lay the groundwork for the investigation that Mr. Smith would take over as special counsel a year and a half later. But a host of factors, some in Mr. Garlands control, others not, slowed things down.
(snip)
Much more... https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/us/politics/trump-jan-6-merrick-garland.html
No paywall (gift link)
emulatorloo
(45,485 posts)BumRushDaShow
(138,248 posts)(devil incarnate ) NYT feature was new to me that I stumbled on just a few days ago and it came out this past March. I know I had seen bits and pieces of the timeline reported but lots of gaps got filled in, which was needed considering there were 2 major things going on - J6 case and the classified docs case.
The J6 "fake electors" issue was primarily a STATE problem and they are finally handling it, whereas the classified docs issue was all federal.
Rhiannon12866
(217,405 posts)Attorney General Merrick Garland denounced the former president Thursday for ginning up outrage over a routine federal authorization that permitted the use of deadly force during the FBIs raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
That allegation is false, and it is extremely dangerous, Garland, who approved seeking a search warrant for the Palm Beach, Fla., residence, told reporters.
The document that is being referred to in the allegation is the Justice Departments standard policy limiting the use of force, he explained - 05/23/2024.
Magoo48
(5,000 posts)but the question remains the same as always: what are you gonna do about it?
Rhiannon12866
(217,405 posts)MorbidButterflyTat
(2,490 posts)Arrest him for lying?
No one except maybe Putin could get that asshole to shut his filthy mouth.
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,834 posts)the fact this took place nearly two years ago and only now they are raising hell about it? Uhhhh, if there was anything to this, aside from the fact DJT was NOT there when the raid happened, they would have screamed about it then. It's pure, 100%, unadulterated bullshit....
3825-87867
(984 posts)Garland wasted NO TIME getting that straight! Whew!
Vinca
(50,761 posts)by the Secret Service. The Secret Service is part of Biden's Homeland Security agency. If Biden wanted to assassinate Trump, why bother with the FBI? Just tell the Mar-a-Lago Secret Service agents to knock him off. Oh, well. MAGA isn't known for its deep thinkers.