Trump: Melania ‘Felt Very Violated’ by FBI Raid of Mar-a-Lago

Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally to support local candidates at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Sept. 3, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Former First Lady Melania Trump felt “very violated” after FBI agents raided her Mar-a-Lago home last month, according to former President Donald Trump.

“She felt very violated. I mean, this is a terrible thing. They go into her closet, they go through her dresses, and who knows what else, and it wasn’t left the way they found it,” Trump told Newsmax in a phone interview on Sept. 20.

Trump added, “I didn’t walk into mine and say, ‘Oh, this is exactly so nice, the way they put it back.’”

The former president, who was in New York City when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, recently returned to his Florida residence. After his return, he took to his Truth Social platform to say that the residence “was ransacked” and the FBI agents “didn’t even take off their shoes in my bedroom.”

“I think it’s a disgrace that a thing like this could happen,” Trump told Newsmax.

Days after the FBI raid, Trump criticized the FBI agents for having “rummaged” through Melania’s “clothing and personal items” during their search of the Florida residence. Earlier in September, Trump also disclosed how the FBI had also searched his 16-year-old son Barron’s room.

The Aug. 8 raid ended with FBI agents seizing a total of 11,179 documents and other materials that weren’t marked classified, along with 103 documents marked classified, including some marked as top secret, according to an inventory released earlier this month.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. There was nothing done wrong,” Trump continued. “You take a look at the Presidential Records Act. That’s what you have to go by, I guess. I mean, that’s what I’m told.”

Trump reiterated his claim that the raid was politically motivated.

“They’re trying to make such a big deal because what they want to do is politicize everything,” Trump said.

Former President Donald Trump (L) and former First Lady Melania Trump (R) arrive for the funeral of Ivana Trump at St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church in New York on July 20, 2022. Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Court

Also on Tuesday, Trump’s legal team told the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that the Mar-a-Lago probe is “unprecedented and misguided” and “at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control,” according to a court filing.

Trump’s lawyers made the filing in response to the Department of Justice’s motion for a partial stay of an order entered by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who appointed a special master to review the seized materials and ordered the government to halt using the seized records for “investigative purpose.”

The DOJ asked the court to allow it to continue using classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago for a criminal investigation into Trump.

“The Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records,” the court filing states.

Trump’s lawyers also said that the decision to appoint a special master was made in “the public interest, the principles of civil and criminal procedure, and the principles of equity.”

Cannon has appointed Judge Raymond Dearie, a Brooklyn-based senior judge who is a Reagan appointee, to serve as special master to review the documents.

Dearie said he didn’t want to see seized materials that were marked classified, during a hearing at a Brooklyn courthouse on Sept. 20.

“Let’s not belittle the fact that we are dealing with at least potentially legitimately classified information. The government has a very strong obligation, as all of us, to see it to that that information doesn’t get in the wrong hands,” Dearie said.

He added, “If I can make my judgments without—I don’t want to see the material—it’s presumably sensitive material.”