Former President Donald Trump sent a message to Attorney General Merrick Garland shortly before Garlandās Thursday comments about the raid on Trumpās estate in the Mar-a-Lago community in South Florida, according to a new report.
Trumpās message, reported by The New York Times on Saturday citing āa person familiar with the exchange,ā came after days of outrage over the Monday raid, and was reported to the Times by what the Times said was āa person familiar with the exchange.
āThe country is on fire,ā Trump told Garland, in a message passed along by āa person close to Mr. Trump,ā according to the Times. āWhat can I do to reduce the heat?ā
If a reply was made, the Times did not report upon it.
On Saturday, Fox News reported that during the raid, FBI agents grabbed boxes of records covered by attorney-client privilege.
The report, which cited āsources familiar with the investigationā who were not named, also said some records seized were potentially covered by executive privilege.
The report said the Justice Department rejected the request of the former presidentās attorneys for the appointment of an independent special master to review the records.
In a social media post, Trump asked that the records covered by privilege be returned.
āOh great! It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged āattorney-clientā material, and also āexecutiveā privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,ā he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
āBy copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!ā Trump wrote.
In a series of posts, Trump vented his rage at the FBI, citing former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page.
āThe FBI has a long and unrelenting history of being corrupt. Just look back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover. In the modern era, nothing has changed except that it has gotten far worse. Look at Comey, McCabe, Strzok and lover Lisa Page. Check out the brilliantly written but damning I.G. Reports. See what they were willing to do in order to get Crooked Hillary Clinton elected (they failed), and got caught!ā Trump wrote.
āThey spied on my campaign, pushed the FAKE Dossier, and illegally used the FISA Court. The Inspector General said the FBI acted with āgross incompetence and negligence.ā I was fully vindicated in the Russia, Russia, Russia SCAM, the āNo Collusionā Mueller Investigation, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, and all else.,ā he wrote.
Trump then wrote about the damaging raid.
āNOW THEY RAID MY HOME, ban my lawyers and, without any witnesses allowed, break the lock that they asked us to install on the storage area that we showed them early on, which held papers that they could have had months ago for the asking, and without the ridiculous political grandstanding of a ābreak inā to a very storied, important, and high visibility place, just before the Midterm Elections,ā Trump wrote.
āThe whole World was watching as the FBI rummaged through the house, including the former First Ladyās closets (and clothing!), alone and unchecked. They even demanded that the security cameras be turned off (we refused), but there was no way of knowing if what they took was legitimate, or was there a āplant?ā This was, after all, the FBI!ā Trump wrote.
The FBI said it took 11 sets of documents with some kind of marking as confidential but did not specify where they were found.
The Times report said the Justice Department was triggered by surveillance footage showing boxes moving in and out of a storage room.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said it was āno surprise that boxes may be moved in and out of a storage room.ā
āThatās not news,ā he said, according to the Times. āIf there was actual concern, the D.O.J. could have asked, just like they had previously, and they would have, again, received full cooperation.ā
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.