The political fight over the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago burst back into public view Thursday as former special counsel Jack Smith appeared before Congress, opening a contentious hearing centered on the investigation of President Donald Trump.
According to Fox News, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, set the tone immediately, steering his opening remarks toward the August 2022 search of Trump’s Florida residence.
Jordan reminded lawmakers that the operation extended beyond offices and storage areas and included parts of the Trump family’s private living space.
According to Jordan, Barron Trump’s bedroom was among the rooms searched during the raid. He also noted that areas used by First Lady Melania Trump were examined.
Smith, who previously testified behind closed doors, appeared in the open hearing to face questions about his prosecutions of Trump and the decisions surrounding the investigations that followed.
“And then there was the raid on President Trump’s home. You know, where they searched Barron’s room and the first lady’s closet? In our deposition with Steven D’Antuono, head of the FBI Washington field office, he told us none of the normal process, none of the normal protocol was followed in the investigation,” Jordan said.
The chairman went on to describe what he said were internal concerns raised by FBI leadership at the time.
Jordan told the committee that D’Antuono explained the raid was run out of the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office instead of the Miami office, which typically would have had jurisdiction.
Jordan also said D’Antuono claimed FBI officials recommended notifying Trump ahead of the search or, at a minimum, contacting his attorneys when agents arrived at Mar-a-Lago. Those recommendations, Jordan said, were rejected by the Department of Justice.
“On November 18th, 2022, three days after President Trump announces he’s running for president, Attorney General Garland names Jack Smith special counsel,” Jordan said. “One of the first things Mr. Smith does is put on his team the very people responsible for the raid on President Trump’s home.”
The Mar-a-Lago search quickly became one of the most controversial law enforcement actions in modern political history. At the time, Trump accused the Biden administration of weaponizing federal power against its top political opponent.
“The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent who is absolutely destroying him and everybody else in the polls,” Trump said during a 2022 rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Trump continued, “On a phony pretext from a highly political magistrate who they hand-picked late in the evening, just days before the break-in, and trampled upon my rights and civil liberties as if our country that we love so much were a third world nation, we’re like a third world nation.”
Trump also told supporters that the search extended into deeply personal areas of his home, saying the FBI went through Melania Trump’s closet drawers and “even did a deep and ugly search of the room of my sixteen-year-old son.”
Those claims, revived during Smith’s appearance on Capitol Hill, ensured that the Mar-a-Lago raid remains a central flashpoint as congressional scrutiny continues.
