Most people wouldn’t blast the FBI, but Donald Trump is *not* most people! The 76-year-old former president took to social media on Monday, August 15th to tell the world that the FBI seized (or “stole” to use his exact words) his passports, along with many other classified documents that he allegedly took from the White House after leaving office in January 2021, when they executed a search warrant of his infamous Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida last week.
“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, in reference to the Monday, August 8th raid. “This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!” he continued.
This is how Fake News works, folks. Biden admin actively feeds half truths & lies that the media willingly amplifies—advancing a partisan narrative to attack Trump.@NorahODonnell, did your “source” read you this email? Did you bother asking if they indeed seized the passports? https://t.co/DlzkagN0ie pic.twitter.com/VwCU7DPCvg
— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) August 15, 2022
Trump’s spokesperson Taylor Budowich later tweeted a screenshot of an email from a Justice Department counterintelligence head, acknowledging that Trump’s passports were seized, while also confirming that they no longer needed them, and wanted to make arrangements to return them to his team.
“This is how Fake News works, folks. Biden admin actively feeds half truths & lies that the media willingly amplifies—advancing a partisan narrative to attack Trump,” Budowich’s tweet began, before going on to directly reference CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell’s previous tweet about the FBI allegedly *not* being in possession of Trump’s passports. “@NorahODonnell, did your ‘source’ read you this email? Did you bother asking if they indeed seized the passports?” he added.
NEW statement from the FBI following inquiries about former president Donald Trump’s passports:
“In executing search warrants, the FBI follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes.” pic.twitter.com/4bORtDeCzb
— Rob Legare (@RobLegare) August 16, 2022
The former president doesn’t appear to have been without *some* of his important documents for long, as an official with the Department of Justice said that the passports have already been returned to his team. That portion of the email was shared on Twitter by CBS News Associate Producer Rob Legare.
His tweet read: “NEW statement from the FBI following inquiries about former president Donald Trump’s passports: ‘In executing search warrants, the FBI follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes.'”
