The return of Donald Trump, “recharged” after the FBI raid on his Florida mansion

The mission in the luxurious Florida villa in vain tried a low profile. The agents avoided wearing their flashy vests with the FBI seal on the back and arrived late Monday night when the homeowner was out of town.

The search began in a basement near the pool, where umbrellas and sunbeds are kept. He then went to the offices on the second floor, where the officers they opened a small safe, “like a hotel”, Which apparently contained nothing relevant.

From there they went straight to Mar a Lago’s home, former President Donald Trump’s place in the world, where they found and took 12 boxes that could hold the treasure they were looking for: secret documents the tycoon would take of the White House, violating the law.

This raid on a president is unprecedented in US history, experts agree. And Trump shouted to the sky when he deemed him worthy of it “A country of bananas”although the agents had a warrant.

But, contrary to what justice and the FBI were looking for, this operation gave Trump an unexpected airafter enduring a tough legislative investigation which concluded he had incited his supporters in the violent assault on Capitol Hill on Jan.6.

The White House said it was not informed of the move made by the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, filed with a complaint in February by the National Archives, the body responsible for the preservation of records. But the raid without a doubt will have serious consequences in the US electoral landscape.

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The country and the world have once again set their sights on this man, who is now considered a victim of a “dark conspiracy” of the Washington judicial establishment, which also accuses of having “stolen” the 2020 elections.

Republicans, including those seeking to break away from the former president, they went out en masse to support him and to denounce a “revenge campaign” by the FBI and the Department of Justice, something that will encourage party grassroots to go out and vote in the November legislative elections.

The most extreme voices of the party warned of “a civil war” and there have already been anti-Semitic threats to the Florida judge who signed the search warrant.

Even his potential Republican rivals for the presidency, such as Florida Governor Ron de Santis, they came out to denounce the operation and to support the tycoon. Trump, who was delaying a possible announcement of his presidential candidacy in 2024, is now tempted to do so, even before November.

This was stated by Kevin Boyle, a professor of American history at Northwestern University Clarione that “there is no precedent for an FBI search of a former president’s home. While the agency has acted entirely in accordance with the rule of law, the FBI certainly runs the risk of being charged look for Trump’s address for political reasons; in fact, several Republicans have already made such an accusation. “

What was the FBI looking for in Mar’s home in Lago, where Trump took refuge after leaving the White House? Although the FBI has not disclosed the reason for the search for him, everything indicates that at the end of his term Trump took from the White House government-owned documents of the United States and the tycoon ignored the National Archives’ request to return them.

According to expert Boyle, “Congress passed a law in 1978 that makes presidential documents publicly owned. Before that, those documents were the property of the president, ”although they were later donated to the federal government.

Not since the Reagan administration – the first administration to which the 1978 law applies – has a president brought presidential documents with him at the end of his term, until Donald Trump did. Taking these documents is illegal.“, He says

It didn’t come out what exactly the FBI was looking for in Mar a Lago. Trump is known to be a man who broke all the rules in the White House and it would not be unusual for him to break them in key roles as well. In fact, White House correspondent Maggie Haberman revealed photographs showing notes in Trump’s handwriting. toilets flushed in presidential offices.

What was the FBI looking for?

But what could the sensitive documents they were looking for in Mar a Lago contain?

Said Thomas A. Schwartz, a history professor at Vanderbilt University Clarione that “it is possible that Trump had related documentation with him with his attempts to cancel the 2020 election or his connection with the leaders of the January 6 riots. I imagine Trump may also have taken some tapes of conversations with foreign leaders, such as the leader of North Korea, which are still confidential. “

At this point, the raid is more of a fact that is seen under a political prism. This was stated by John Aldrich, professor of political science at Duke University Clarione that “the investigation and the raid on the Trump house will have an impact among the Republicans. Elected officials and party leaders have already reacted, generally condemning the raid. But the most frightening calls to arms by extreme activists carry the risk of true monitoring. It’s scary and annoying“.

For this expert, “the big question is how Republican voters will react.” If the FBI doesn’t find important things in your raid, he warns him, “it’s worrying because it will add to the ‘politicization’ of the FBI and federal forces in general and help undermine their legitimacy.”

However, “if they find concrete and serious evidence, which will weaken Republican leaders in general and it will damage Trump’s credibility as a candidate within his own party. “

But the Republicans see the opportunity, unite and defend a leader who shows himself who still have enormous influence in the party and in the face of a Biden administration overwhelmed by the economic crisis.

Members of the House Oversight Committee in a letter asked the director of the National Archives to appear before Congress to clarify his involvement in what they see as a “embarrassing episode in American history”.

Trump tries to seize the moment. The one with the documents is just one of the many judicial fronts he has, but he will try to dilute everything behind the fog of political revenge. Now he focuses on his campaign and its possible launch.

In a video he posted a few hours after the raid, he shouted, “The best is yet to come” and made an appeal to raise funds, in which he stated that “it’s important that they know that not only have they hacked into my home, but the home of all the patriotic Americans I fought for. ”

PB