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FBI Was Authorized To Use ‘Deadly Force’ Against Trump During Mar-A-Lago Raid, Court Filings Show
The Federalist ^ | 05/21/2024 | BRIANNA LYMAN

Posted on 05/21/2024 3:46:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The FBI was authorized to use “deadly force” against former President Donald Trump when the Biden administration agency raided Mar-a-Lago in search of classified documents, according to newly unsealed court documents shared on X by independent journalist Julie Kelly.

Attorney General Merrick Garland personally approved the unprecedented raid on Trump’s Florida home in the summer of 2022, after which special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Notably, President Joe Biden also retained classified documents following his tenure as vice president but was not charged by his own Justice Department because prosecutors said he would likely “present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

A newly unsealed operations order reveals the FBI was authorized to use deadly force against the former president if need be, Kelly reported.

“According to an ‘Operations Order’ produced in discovery, the FBI believed its objective for the Mar-a-Lago raid was to seize ‘classified information, NDI [national defense information], and US Government records as described in [the] search warrant,'” the filing by Trump’s legal team states.

“The Order contained a ‘Policy Statement’ regarding ‘Use Of Deadly Force,’ which stated, for example, ‘Law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary …’,” according to the filing. “The agents planned to bring ‘Standard Issue Weapon[s],’ ‘Ammo,’ ‘Handcuffs,’ and ‘medium and large sized bolt cutters,’ but they were instructed to wear ‘unmarked polo or collared shirts’ and to keep ‘law enforcement equipment concealed.'”

The FBI also provided “coordinating instructions” on the use of deadly force.


Screenshots of the filing posted by Kelly suggest agents were prepared to confront Trump and his Secret Service agents if the need arose.

“Should [former President of the United States] arrive at [Mar-a-Lago], FBI MM EM and OSCs will be prepared to engage with FPOTUS and USSS Security Team,” read a “Contingencies” list from the filing. (MM may be a reference to the Miami FBI office, and OSC appears to refer to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.) The list also included instructions in case the Secret Service were to “provide resistance or interfere with FBI timeline or accesses.”

The filings also included exhibits indicating agents searched both Melania and Barron Trump’s rooms, and were prepared to go door-to-door throughout Mar-a-Lago “to determine occupation status” of each room if the staff did not provide “a list of occupied guest rooms.”

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed the trial in Smith’s lawfare case against the former president after the DOJ admitted it tampered with evidence. Smith admitted that some of the documents seized during the raid were not kept in the same order in which they were originally found while others may have been misplaced entirely, as my colleague Tristan Justice noted.

[READ NEXT: Federal Agency Had ‘Pallets’ Of Documents Sent To Mar-A-Lago One Year Before DOJ Raid]


Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boilerplate; classifieddocuments; deadlyforce; documents; evidencetampering; fbi; iran; maralago; maralagoraid; policystatement; raid; secrecy; unmarkedshirts
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To: RoseofTexas

Good summation. It’s getting really old, really fast.


61 posted on 05/21/2024 6:06:35 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: butlerweave

He was out of town. Did they know that??? That’s the question.


62 posted on 05/21/2024 6:07:52 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: Bayard

And hotel guests. I heard they had keys to the rooms.


63 posted on 05/21/2024 6:09:55 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: frnewsjunkie

Oh, I think they’ve done it before.


64 posted on 05/21/2024 6:11:05 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: Metrobank

Yes.


65 posted on 05/21/2024 6:12:23 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: Just mythoughts

This why Trump gave him the name, DeSanctimonious.


66 posted on 05/21/2024 6:13:30 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: SeekAndFind

Garland!


67 posted on 05/21/2024 6:15:00 PM PDT by existentially_kuffer
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To: SeekAndFind

Mostly peaceful Gestapo.


68 posted on 05/21/2024 6:18:32 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (e)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s a wonder Merry Garland didn’t order them to dust President Trump.


69 posted on 05/21/2024 6:29:41 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (When did WE decide to make America a UN 5-Star Asylum Paradise for Socialist losers?)
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To: CA Conservative

I tend to agree with you, but the repeated use of the verb engage when dealing with the SS may have been just Feebspeak, but it is still disturbing. Words like confer, discuss, negotiate could have been used but the Feebs chose engage. Now engage can mean promise to.marry, hire, make one feel comfortable but when an armed agency uses it in the context of dealing with suspects or another armed group engage takes on an uncomfortable meaning.


70 posted on 05/21/2024 6:38:24 PM PDT by xkaydet65
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To: SeekAndFind

Why would they need this? :

The filings also included exhibits indicating agents searched both Melania and Barron Trump’s rooms, and were prepared to go door-to-door throughout Mar-a-Lago “to determine occupation status” of each room if the staff did not provide “a list of occupied guest rooms.”


71 posted on 05/21/2024 7:17:49 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: RoseofTexas

Well said.


72 posted on 05/21/2024 7:34:54 PM PDT by Signalman (I am not a snob. Ask anyone who matters.)
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To: Just mythoughts

Stuff it with the divisive bullsheiss.


73 posted on 05/21/2024 7:37:11 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa
Keep your head buried in the sand. I did not start the divisive holy campaign.. why do you not care that duh-saintis got the floriduh legislature to deep six all his records?
74 posted on 05/21/2024 7:40:52 PM PDT by Just mythoughts (Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?)
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To: CA Conservative

Nonsense. There wouldn’t be any keyboard warriors anywhere near there at the time who would even know about the raid, not to mention if their worry was some keyboard j6 type assaulting them while they searched, the order would have been generalized for the time they were searching, not just in case of Trump returning.


75 posted on 05/21/2024 8:25:34 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: CA Conservative

Does not read as though they were in the least bit concerned about keyboard warriors- read again:

“Should [former President of the United States] arrive at [Mar-a-Lago], FBI MM EM and OSCs will be prepared to engage with FPOTUS and USSS Security Team,” read a “Contingencies” list from the filing. (MM may be a reference to the Miami FBI office, and OSC appears to refer to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.) The list also included instructions in case the Secret Service were to “provide resistance or interfere with FBI timeline or accesses.”


76 posted on 05/21/2024 8:31:56 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Sarah Barracuda

That is what they claimed he did on Jan 6 to the limo driver....who disputes the claim.


77 posted on 05/21/2024 8:34:20 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: vivenne

Obviously they did, since they mention what would be authorized if he returned early with his security detail.


78 posted on 05/21/2024 8:41:26 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: dpetty121263
I hope not. This same mentality that went to Mar-A-Lago armed to the teeth for President Trump is the same mentality that shot JFK in Houston. There must have been something in those Presidential papers they wanted real bad. Real, real bad!
79 posted on 05/21/2024 9:46:04 PM PDT by jonrick46 (Leftniks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Was the same deadly force authorized for three well known similar other searches? if not investigations warranted.


80 posted on 05/22/2024 7:41:43 AM PDT by Striperman (Striperman)
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