Was FBI raid on Donald Trump’s residence an attempt to stop him from becoming US president again?
Donald trump raid
An FBI raid on Donald Trump’s palatial Florida residence on Tuesday marked an escalation of legal probes into the former US president. The raid, which came just as Trump was weighing another White House run, has sparked a political firestorm in the already bitterly divided country. Top Republican leaders have flung their support behind the 45th US president, and several former advisers urged him to immediately announce his candidacy for the 2024 elections.
Republicans were quick to allege foul play. Senator Lindsey Graham reportedly said thata probe into a past president so close to an election“is beyond problematic”. However, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Speaker, said “no person is above the law”.
Republicans disagree.
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Former vice presidentMike Pence voiced “deep concern” and claimed the Justice Department’s raid reeked of “partisanship”.
Another Republican, Kevin McCarthy, accused the justice department of “weaponised politicisation”.Yet another Republican Elise Stefanik referred to it as a “dark day in American history”.
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“If the FBI can raid a US President, imagine what they can do to you,” Stefanik tweeted.
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To which Democratic Representative Ted Lieu replied: “Why can’t the FBI investigate a US President? We're not Russia, where the law doesn't apply to the head of state and his cronies.”
Trump himself has also denounced the raid, which was conducted by the FBI that is currently headed by one of his appointees Christopher Wray.
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Calling the raid a weaponisation of the justice system by "Radical Left Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for President in 2024," he said that nothing of this sort has ever happened to a US president before.
AFP reported that FBI chief Wray has declined to provide a reason for the raid.
However, US media said that agents were carrying out a court-authorized search in relation to the alleged improper handling of confidential information delivered to Mar-a-Lago after Trump departed the White House in January 2021.
(With inputs from agencies)
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