Trump Responds to Nuclear Documents Reports

Former President Donald Trump waves while walking to a vehicle outside of Trump Tower in New York on Aug. 10, 2022. Stringer/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump said reports that the FBI was allegedly searching for documents on nuclear weapons at his Mar-a-Lago residence is a “hoax” and likened it to years-long claims that he was a Russian agent.

“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning.

The former president alleged that the “same sleazy people [are] involved” in making allegations about nuclear weapons and questioned why FBI agents did not allegedly allow his lawyers to inspect their work at Mar-a-Lago on Monday. The FBI, he said, made his team “wait outside in the heat” and “wouldn’t let them get even close.”

Anonymous sources told the Washington Post and other legacy media on Thursday night that classified documents related to nuclear weapons were being searched by the FBI. It’s not clear if the FBI agents recovered anything.

Neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice has issued public comments on the latest allegation, and both agencies have not elaborated on why agents took the unprecedented step of raiding the home of a former president.

The former commander-in-chief also made reference to a dossier of mostly debunked claims penned by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by an opposition research firm that was in turn, used by a Democrat-aligned law firm on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. In late 2019, the Department of Justice’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, found there were numerous errors and omissions when the FBI applied for secretive warrants to surveil members of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Trump lawyer Christina Bobb told Fox News on Thursday that the Washington Post’s reports are a bid to sow fear among the American population.

“This is what the Democrats do. They don’t have any good reason for doing what they did. The pathetic presser that Merrick Garland held for three minutes was insufficient, so they had to create fear,” Bobb told the outlet, adding, “They are not on solid ground ... they had to come up with something that would potentially terrify the American public into freely giving up their constitutional freedoms.”

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Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday said he “personally approved” the FBI search but could not discuss what or why federal law enforcement agents were investigating. He spoke just moments after the Department of Justice filed a motion to unseal the search warrant in the case, coming a day after a judge in the case ordered the agency to file a response in request to several groups’ requests to unseal it.

Local law enforcement officers are seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 9, 2022. Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images

Court documents filed by the Justice Department said that the “public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing.” The motion to unseal parts of the warrant, including a “redacted Property Receipt listing items seized pursuant to the search,” was signed off by U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez as well as a DOJ official on counterintelligence, Jay Bratt.

On Thursday night, Trump wrote on social media that he agreed the warrant could be made public.

“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats,” wrote the former president.

It was Trump himself who confirmed the FBI raid on his Truth Social account on Monday evening. Following the disclosure, top Republicans called on the Justice Department to release documents and provide reasons for the escalation.