Did they really believe this would be a “low-key” event that no one noticed? That’s bureaucratic group-think in action.
The fallout from the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home on Monday continues to sweep through the halls of power in Washington. As more information comes to light, so do more questions about the reason for such heavy-handed tactics that the Justice Department has yet to provide any explanation for.
Up to this point, it’s confirmed that the raid was concerning classified documents over which Trump has been in a legal battle with the National Archives for several months now. The two sides seemed to have reached an acceptable agreement until something changed weeks ago that set the raid in motion.
With the raid in the rearview mirror, some DOJ insiders, speaking anonymously, are venting their frustrations with how the issue was handled and the unbelievable claim that FBI officials thought it would be a quiet, routine search warrant:
The officials, who have direct knowledge of the FBI’s deliberations and were granted anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters, said the raid of Donald Trump’s Florida residence was deliberately timed to occur when the former president was away.
FBI decision-makers in Washington and Miami thought that denying the former president a photo opportunity or a platform from which to grandstand (or to attempt to thwart the raid) would lower the profile of the event, says one of the sources, a senior Justice Department official who is a 30-year veteran of the FBI.
The effort to keep the raid low-key failed: instead, it prompted a furious response from GOP leaders and Trump supporters. “What a spectacular backfire,” says the Justice official.
In what universe would anyone, let alone seasoned law enforcement professionals, expect that descending on the private residence of a former president for 10 hours rifling through offices, safes, and the former first lady’s wardrobe somehow be considered low-key?
Did they not foresee the exact scenario playing out in which Trump is the martyr persecuted by an ongoing campaign against him since the day he rode down the Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy in 2015?
If it weren’t so ridiculous, it would almost seem like the FBI did Trump a favor by executing this warrant over documents in a way that continues to demonstrate the two-tier justice system that forgives illegal behavior by Democrats and magnifies any and all behavior of Republicans.
A second DOJ source also quoted by Newsweek says the potential fallout was ignored by everyone involved:
“They were seeking to avoid any media circus,” says the second source, a senior intelligence official who was briefed on the investigation and the operation. “So even though everything made sense bureaucratically and the FBI feared that the documents might be destroyed, they also created the very firestorm they sought to avoid, in ignoring the fallout.”
Seeking to avoid a media circus? These are people tasked with understanding and predicting situational awareness gaming out how events will unfold. According to these insiders, no one at the top of the FBI gave the raid a second thought.
The only qualification was to carry it out while Trump was up north staying at his Bedminster golf course and spending time in meetings at Trump Tower.
The DOJ has remained quiet and unwilling to explain why it felt the need to send agents into Mar-A-Lago for 10+ hours seeking classified documents for which the National Archives was already in the process of negotiating a return.
Maybe “spectacular backfire” doesn’t begin to describe the result. Unreal.
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