Emails detail how Biden DOJ bowled over FBI concerns in raiding Donald Trump’s Florida home

As the FBI raised doubts that a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Florida estate met probable cause standards, the Justice Department under President Joe Biden pushed to expand the search’s scope, refused cooperation with Trump’s attorney, and discounted the agents’ concerns about the optics of the raid, according to newly declassified emails turned over to Congress.

The new evidence that surfaced Tuesday may have more than political impact, as a top congressman warns it may give Trump cause to sue for civil liberty violations or prompt prosecutors to pursue a criminal investigation.

"This is going to go down as a very dark chapter in American history, and President Trump may have recourse now to be able to seek damages at some point in time," Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., told Just the News.

The new emails were turned over to Congress after Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel declassified them. They show the FBI in summer 2022 raised repeated objections to raiding Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, expressing doubt that there was sufficient “probable cause” to believe the then-former president had broken the law in handling classified documents. 

The memos also show that the bureau's Washington Field Office and its agents repeatedly tried to find alternative solutions to a contentious raid of the property, including having a “reasonable conversation” with Trump’s lawyers and limiting the search warrant to avoid private areas of the estate. 

However, Biden-era Justice Department officials brushed aside these suggestions, expanding both the scope of the warrant and refusing any further discussions with Trump’s personal lawyer. 

The Justice Department originally wrote to Trump’s lawyer on May 11, 2022 requesting that the former president return all classified documents in his possession. The deadline was set for May 24, but, after the deadline passed, the attorney wrote back claiming the Justice Department had said that deadline was flexible. The Justice Department said there would be no extension. 

In response, the attorney said that the Justice Department would either have to compel compliance or “try to reach an accommodation.” The FBI believed that it was entirely “reasonable” to try to reach an agreement with Trump’s lawyer for the return of the documents “given that the attorney seemed open” to it. 

However, the memos show the Justice Department had apparently lost its patience and wanted to move forward without any further negotiations. “DOJ has been adamant that no accommodation would be given and that they would not reach out to the attorney,” the Assistant Special Agent in Charge wrote on June 1, 2022. 

Despite this, the FBI still believed cooperating with the former president’s lawyer was the right move.   

“Even as we continued down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former president’s attorney… ought not to be discounted,” the agent wrote later in the same email. “This conversation could easily be accomplished at the same time that WFO presses forward with the investigation and continues building out the search warrant.” 

You can read the newly released memos below: 

Additionally, the memos show the Justice Department was keen on securing a search warrant for the entire premises of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, despite concern from the FBI that investigators lacked probable cause for searches of personal office space and the former president’s bedroom. 

“With respect to the locations at the premises to be searched, I think we should all hop on a call. Limiting the [search warrant] to specific areas gives me some pause, as we’re not exactly sure where the boxes were moved within the premises after they left the storage room. We of course don’t want to be searching guest premises, etc., but I’m not sure how to limit this within the text of the warrant,” DOJ official Julie Edelstein wrote on July 8, 2022. 

“I agree we should not limit the search to specific rooms, other than specifying the search would not include guest rooms,” Michael Thakur, another DOJ official, replied.

After receiving this feedback, the FBI warned that it did not believe there was probable cause to search certain areas of the palatial estate for allegedly classified documents.  

“WF/[redacted] does not believe we have [probable cause] for the 45 Office or the bedroom due to recency and issues of boxes versus classified materials,” one agent wrote.

The records show some agents in the Washington Field Office appear to have grown frustrated over the back and forth with the Justice Department over that scope and the rooms to be searched. 

“[We] continue to pass versions back and forth after our pause and concern about [probable cause] for any of the locations outlined…” an agent wrote to the team. “What is the guidance for continuing to work on this document without any new information?” 

“[The agent] asks a fair question,” a colleague replied. “We haven’t generated any new facts, but keep being given draft after draft after draft. Absent a witness coming forward with recent information about classified on site, at what point is it fair to table this?” 

Notably, when the Washington Field Office realized that the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida would proceed despite its reservations, its agents advocated for a “professional, low key” search that respected “the optics,” appearing to recognize the sensitivity of President Biden’s Justice Department ordering a raid on his leading political rival. However, the Justice Department appeared to roundly reject this concern. 

"The FBI intends for the execution of the warrant to be handled in a professional, low key manner, and to be mindful of the optics of the search," one agent wrote. 

The agent then memorialized the reply from then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toscas, which completely discounted the concern. The agent warned that this attitude would make the process more difficult and potentially disrupt a clean execution of the search warrant.   

"Since we heard Mr. Toscas say yesterday in the call that he ‘frankly doesn’t give a damn about the optics’ and Mr. Bratt has already built an antagonistic relationship with (Trump) attorneys…I think it is more than fair to say that the DOJ contact with (Trump attorney) just prior to the execution of the warrant will not go well. DOJ said as much yesterday," the agent wrote.

​​"I also think that it is fair to say that if FBI calls, having in mind officer safety, to the optics of the search, and the desire to conduct this search in a professional and low key manner, there is a far better chance that the execution will go more smoothly and we may actually gain some measure of cooperation, which could go some way to resolving the mishandling of classified records investigation that is being conducted,” the agent continued. 

The agent added, "I understand that this request may not go well at DOJ, however, it is the FBI serving and executing the search and it will be our personnel who will have to deal with the reaction to that first contact." 

The eventual raid, which took place on August 8, 2022, became a flash point in the battle between Biden and Trump ahead of the 2024 election, leading to two federal indictments against Trump that were ultimately dismissed in what Republicans argue were politically weaponized acts by a Democrat-run DOJ designed to influence the 2024 election.

The search of the property was authorized by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. The Biden attorney general later picked Jack Smith in November 2022 to lead the twin criminal investigations into Trump related to classified documents and the Capitol riot.

The newly public documents were turned over to Congress as Jack Smith is set to appear for closed-door testimony with the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The committee previously subpoenaed Smith to appear as part of the committee's probe into the federal prosecutions of Trump. Peter Koski, a lawyer for Smith, indicated that the former special counsel will comply, Just the News previously reported. 

In addition to the Justice Department, the Biden White House was also directly linked to the classified documents investigation into Trump. 

In fact, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents, allowing the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Mar-a-Lago this spring and eliminating the 45th president's claims to executive privilege, according to documents reviewed by Just the News in August 2022, shortly after the raid. 

The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su engaged in discussions with the FBI, DOJ, and National Archives as early as April 2022, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the National Archives from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.  

By May, Su conveyed to the Archives that President Biden would not object to waiving his predecessor's claims to executive privilege, a decision that opened the door for the Justice Department to get a grand jury to issue a subpoena compelling Trump to turn over any remaining materials he possessed from his presidency.