A decision by President Joe Biden “opened the door” for the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s home in South Florida, according to a Monday report.
“Government documents” purportedly show that the Biden White House, in conjunction with the Department of Justice and National Archives, helped launch the probe into former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified materials, according to Just the News.
Specifically, the documents, dating back to April, show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su corresponding with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives regarding the former president, the Washington-based website reported.
According to Just the News, which reportedly obtained the government documents, discussions between Su and the government agencies began after Trump voluntarily returned 15 boxes of classified materials to the National Archives.
Su named Biden himself in a document sent in May, noting Biden was not opposed to “waiving his predecessor’s claims to executive privilege, a decision that opened the door for DOJ to” compel Trump to hand over any and all classified materials he may have been in possession of, Just the News reported.
That was a key decision that helped lay the groundwork for the Aug. 8 raid.
If not for Biden’s decision, Trump’s claim to executive privilege could have blocked the DOJ from gaining access to any documents in his possession.
National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall, writing for the National Archives and Records Administration, sent a letter to Trump’s lawyers on May 10 detailing the White House’s involvement in the investigation, Just the News reported.
“On April 11, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office — affirming a request from the Department of Justice supported by an FBI letterhead memorandum — formally transmitted a request that NARA provide the FBI access to the 15 boxes for its review within seven days, with the possibility that the FBI might request copies of specific documents following its review of the boxes,” Wall wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Trump defense attorney Evan Corcoran.
“The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege.”
“… I have therefore decided not to honor the former President’s ‘protective’ claim of privilege.”
White House officials have denied having any prior knowledge of the FBI raid.
During an Aug. 9 news briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied the administration was ever briefed on the raid.
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“No, the president was not briefed, was not aware of it. No. No one at the White House was given a heads up, no. That did not happen,” Jean-Pierre said.
“Look, I’ll say this: The president and the White House learned about this FBI search from public reports,” she said. “We learned just like the American public did yesterday, and we did not have advanced notice of this activity.
“President Biden has been very clear from before he was elected president and throughout his time in office that the Justice Department conducts its investigation independently.”
In a May 4 interview, Kash Patel, a former federal prosecutor and Defense Department official in the Trump administration, told Breitbart News that Trump had previously declassified the documents in question in order to share them with the American people.
“Trump declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves,” Patel said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
