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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: Vermont Lt

I hope you are right.


21 posted on 05/21/2024 4:09:28 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: Sarah Barracuda

Certainly makes it all the more plausible.


22 posted on 05/21/2024 4:13:35 PM PDT by Jane Long (The role of the GOP: to write sharply-worded letters as America becomes a communist hell-hole.)
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To: Skywise

They were after Obama era secret documents that show Obama was into something illegal. I’m guessing they were found and taken and destroyed. Hence, the fiasco of them shuffling the papers and then taking photos.


23 posted on 05/21/2024 4:13:42 PM PDT by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
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To: mfish13

How do you know this?


24 posted on 05/21/2024 4:15:19 PM PDT by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Did Biden leak this to get stronger leftist support? Because all the leftists I know would be very happy about this story.


25 posted on 05/21/2024 4:16:46 PM PDT by toddausauras (Trump 2024)
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To: roving

“It’s a good thing Trump wasn’t there.”

If you actually read the documents, they knew he wouldn’t be there when they raided MAL. The document discussed how they would handle it if Trump returned while they were searching (have someone engage with or talk to Trump and the SS agents, presumably to keep them out of the building while the search was conducted). That’s why all of these hysterical claims that it was an attempted assassination are so ridiculous.

I doubt that the authorization to use deadly force had Trump or the SS in mind, but rather were in case any of the keyboard warriors who keep calling for Wray, Garland and others to be hanged decided to do more than talk…


26 posted on 05/21/2024 4:18:31 PM PDT by CA Conservative (Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I am free at last)
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To: SeekAndFind; All

So the FBI was authorized to asassinatie the President?


27 posted on 05/21/2024 4:20:21 PM PDT by Cobra64 (Common sense isn’t common anymore)
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To: SeekAndFind

I hope Trump has these criminals arrested from Garland on down


28 posted on 05/21/2024 4:20:58 PM PDT by ZULU (JUDGE JUAN MARSHAM IS A FRAUD A POLITICAL HACK AND A CRIMINAL)
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To: SeekAndFind

Proving my point I think they will JFK\RFK Trump before November...


29 posted on 05/21/2024 4:21:36 PM PDT by dpetty121263
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To: roving

“Other than that, I don’t understand what we’re supposed to do.”

Don’t expect an answer. FR is infested with punk agitators who expect other people to saddle up, ride out and fix whatever problems they perceive, while they sit on their fat asses and do nothing.


30 posted on 05/21/2024 4:22:02 PM PDT by sergeantdave (AI training involves stealing content from creators and not paying them a penny)
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To: Thank You Rush

Thats just from the New York Post. Will probably never be printed in the New York Times and sadly, it ain’t a scandal unless the New York Times says it’s a scandal. See Tagline.


31 posted on 05/21/2024 4:24:00 PM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: SeekAndFind

It wouldn’t surprise me if the whole point of the raid was to stumble into a situation where they shot President Trump and the witnesses


32 posted on 05/21/2024 4:25:46 PM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: SeekAndFind

Was Trump there during the fake raid and were they hoping he gets shot ?


33 posted on 05/21/2024 4:31:19 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: SeekAndFind

The Democrat Party Organized Crime Syndicate includes FBI employees.


34 posted on 05/21/2024 4:32:27 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: Jane Long

In the report it shows the feds wanted Trump to be there..of course they did, they wanted Trump to throw a fit, which most likely he would have done, seeing these clowns storm his house, they would have shot him and said “He was lunging at us it was totally justified”


35 posted on 05/21/2024 4:37:59 PM PDT by Sarah Barracuda
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To: CA Conservative

I doubt that the authorization to use deadly force had Trump or the SS in mind, but rather were in case any of the keyboard warriors who keep calling for Wray, Garland and others to be hanged decided to do more than talk…

\/

any other revealations for us, or are you done outing youreself ?

/-)


36 posted on 05/21/2024 4:43:43 PM PDT by cuz1961
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To: libertylover

There are several threads here tonight on the subject...it’s getting circulated well here for sure. I probably missed some..

Federalist
Declassified with Julie Kelly
Mtn Climber - FR vanity


37 posted on 05/21/2024 4:44:38 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: SeekAndFind

They would have shot him over documents he declassified. I believe they absolutely relished the hopes of a confrontation. Then who knows what they would have put on his body. I recall in recent court procedings they had to fess up to planting “top secret” pages on the docs at Maro Lago.


38 posted on 05/21/2024 4:45:53 PM PDT by inchworm (al )
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To: CA Conservative

Fed! Fed! Fed!


39 posted on 05/21/2024 4:48:04 PM PDT by ohioman
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To: Sarah Barracuda

Trump and his family were in New York.

But what about the Secret Service? Every former president and former first lady have Secret Service protection for life.

Was the SS informed BEFORE the raid? Otherwise, they would have thought armed terrorists were invading the president’s home (they were) and would have fought them with every weapon at their disposal. Did they know FBI agents were on their way to Mar-a-Lago? Something I’ve wondered since it happened.


40 posted on 05/21/2024 4:50:54 PM PDT by july4thfreedomfoundation (Disband and Defund the putrid FBI. America does not need an out of control Gestapo)
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