Christian Smith
Former President Trump falsely claimed in a fundraising email Wednesday that President Biden was “locked and loaded and ready to get me out” — distorting the standard language of documents prepared as authorities prepared to search Mar-a-Lago searching for confidential records.
Trump’s comment draws from court documents a policy statement prepared by law enforcement that lays out the protocol for the search.
In reality, the statement allows deadly force “only when necessary,” such as when someone “poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical harm to the officer or another person.”
However, the email states at several points that Biden or the Justice Department “were authorized to shoot” Trump.
Several links encourage readers to donate anywhere from $20.24 to more than $3,000 to his campaign.
Despite Trump’s claims, he was not home when the FBI conducted the search of his Florida property on August 8, 2022, a decision made to help avoid any potential conflict with the former president.
One of the only deviations from standard FBI protocol was that the officers wore polo shirts and khaki pants while conducting the search in order to draw less attention while on the club grounds.
The FBI said it “followed standard protocol in this search, as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force.”
“No one ordered additional measures to be taken and there was no deviation from the norm in this matter,” the agency said.
Trump’s comments — fueled by a social media post claiming the FBI authorized deadly force — were further amplified by his supporters in Congress.
“The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on social platform X.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) condemned Trump for making the complaintcalling it “that which leads to political violence.”
“What is Donald Trump doing [is] using conspiracy theories to whip the far right into a frenzy, and it is despicable for members of Congress to spread Donald Trump’s lies. This is how people are killed, how the seeds of political violence are sown, and how people lose faith in democracy,” he said.
The current political statement was raised by Trump as he tries to attack his Mar-a-Lago case, alleging that Biden coordinated with the Justice Department to bring charges that would harm his electoral prospects.
There is no evidence of any improper White House coordination with prosecutors, and most of the unsealed documents in Wednesday’s proceedings indicate that a previous judge who reviewed the case found Trump legally guilty of concealing classified records.
New details discovered in the documents indicate that Trump still had classified documents in his bedroom after the initial search of his home and that he ordered the boxes to be returned by his two co-defendants without them being seen on camera.
Trump’s own lawyers argued in their other federal case that a president ordering the murder of a rival it would be covered by presidential immunity, preventing prosecutors from bringing charges on the matter once the president leaves office.
Trump’s legal team made the argument as it sought to dismiss charges related to his efforts to stay in power after losing the election, most recently asking the Supreme Court to block the case.
