RedState reports that Donald Trump claimed the FBI took his passports in the raid on his Florida home. According to the former president, three passports were taken during the search, which apparently went far beyond just recovering supposedly classified documents that threatened “national security.”
The claim by Trump was immediately criticized by the press, who quickly joined the fray and called him a fraud. Norah O’Donnell of CBS News claimed via a source that the FBI was “not in possession of former President Trump’s passports.”
NEW: An official from the DOJ claims that former President Trump is not in possession of his passports. Trump claimed that the FBI stole his passports in the raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence.
— Norah O’Donnell 🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) August 15, 2022
When I saw that report from O’Donnell, I put out my own post questioning the phrasing. “Not in possession of” is very specific wording that could have simply meant the FBI had passed them on to another agency. Why not just say “we didn’t take the passports” if they didn’t take the passports?
Well, as it turns out, Trump’s team was ready and waiting with the receipts that showed the press narrative was a falsehood.
Fake News is just that. Biden admin actively feeds half truths & lies that the media willingly amplifies—advancing a partisan narrative to attack Trump.@NorahODonnell, did your “source” read you this email? Have you tried to find out if the passports were actually seized? https://t.co/DlzkagN0ie pic.twitter.com/VwCU7DPCvg
— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) August 15, 2022
Incredibly (or perhaps not so), instead of admitting their mistake, members of the press rushed out to somehow make the revelation about…Trump’s supposed dishonesty.
Trump Team now makes this email public.
1) DOJ obtained three passports (two of which were expired, not one like Trump stated) and alerted Trump lawyers
2) They were retrieved by a filter group, who weeds out sensitive information.
Trump announced this news after DOJ gave them back pic.twitter.com/lz8wneIQ0a— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 15, 2022
This is it. The FBI did indeed seize Trump’s passports, which seems incredibly improper given what was legally allowed to be taken by the warrant. A passport is not something you just accidentally grab, thinking it’s a presidential record. It’s the kind of thing that an agent purposely took and knew exactly what they were taking. The problem is, Trump misunderstood the expiration date of one passport. It’s absurd.
Here’s the story of how big is the FBI Passports taken It was not that Trump shared the email. It is not that Trump shared an email that ended up embarrassing the bureau’s leadership, who were apparently content to keep lying about the matter via leaks until the former president exposed them. Now, the mainstream media wants to pretend like the seizure was just an honest mistake that shouldn’t be held against the FBI. Yeah, that’s not how any of this works.
The press and the DOJ working together to push a false narrative isn’t surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less improper and corrupt. There need to be answers provided for how the FBI ended up with Trump’s passports when they obviously weren’t part of what was sought and allowed to be taken in the warrant. O’Donnell and the rest of the press who ran with that lie that the FBI didn’t have the passports also need to answer for why they swallowed a statement from the DOJ without even bothering to get any corroborating details.
With every passing day, the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago looks worse and worse. This regime is proud to operate like a banana republic. There is no limit to the dishonesty displayed by those who are always trying to take advantage of the orange man.