Inside the Mar-a-Lago Raid: Prosecutors and FBI Feuded Over Trump Search, According to Washington Post Deep-Dive

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

FBI agents and prosecutors with the Justice Department were reportedly caught up in a months-long dispute about how to investigate former President Donald Trump and deal with his mishandling of classified documents.

The Washington Post reports that in the months before the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago to find the documents that were being kept there, two senior FBI officials were described as reluctant to go ahead with the plan.

The report states that officials found the plan “too combative,” that they wanted to keep on seeking Trump’s permission to search the estate, and that some field agents wanted to slow down — or outright shutter — the probe because of its massive political sensitivity.

“Prosecutors ultimately prevailed in that dispute,” the Post notes. “One of several previously unreported clashes in a tense tug of war between two arms of the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue a criminal investigation of a former president.”

The Post report says, “The disagreements stemmed in large part from worries among officials that whatever steps they took in investigating a former president would face intense scrutiny and second-guessing by people inside and outside the government.”

Thus, investigators braced themselves for Trump’s impending attacks on the investigations against him, even as DOJ officials debated over balancing the national security imperative with the broader political implications.

The report describes the FBI’s internal deliberations in the lead-up to the Mar-a-Lago search. As the concern grew over Trump’s withholding of classified documents, prosecutors built up their case for the search warrant the FBI would execute, but agents were still reluctant to go ahead with it:

The prosecutors learned FBI agents were still loath to conduct a surprise search. They also heard from top FBI officials that some agents were simply afraid: They worried taking aggressive steps investigating Trump could blemish or even end their careers, according to some people with knowledge of the discussions. One official dubbed it “the hangover of Crossfire Hurricane,” a reference to the FBI investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections to the Trump campaign, the people said. As president, Trump repeatedly targeted some FBI officials involved in the Russia case.