White House Reportedly ‘Blindsided’ by Mar-a-Lago Raid: ‘Found Out When We All Did’

The White House was “blindsided” by the stunning news that the FBI had executed a search warrant on Mar-A-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida home of former President Donald Trump, reported CNN.

CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins reported on the story during AC360, with guest host John Berman, calling it a “remarkable development” to see Trump himself confirming the news.

“We should note we have now learned that this search warrant had to do with that investigation into how the former president handled potentially classified information, certainly sensitive information, when he left the White House,” said Collins, noting previous reporting about Trump taking “about 15 boxes” with him to Mar-A-Lago at the end of his term in January 2021. The National Archives had demanded the return of those documents and issued a subpoena for them.

The Department of Justice was refusing to comment when CNN reached out, said Collins. “The Biden White House was also unaware that this was being conducted, and say they found out when the rest of us did,” when Trump posted his statement.

In a later segment on the show, Berman asked his panel for reaction. Republican strategist Scott Jennings commented that if the DOJ didn’t manage to convict Trump, then they will have “martyred” him, “basically guaranteed” he gets the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and given him “a big weapon” to go after Biden or whoever the Democratic presidential nominee might be.

“I mean, they’ve raided the guy’s house,” said Jennings. “There’s no reconciliation here when you raid somebody’s house. And so because of the political implications of that, I’m curious to know about what did the White House know?”

Jennings acknowledged that The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin had reported that “senior political figures in the Biden White House didn’t know, they were blindsided by the news on Twitter.”

“I want to know if Joe Biden knew,” Jennings emphasized, due to the substantial political implications of the FBI searching the home of a former president and probable future candidate.

“Dana, we do have the answer to that question,” said Berman.

Bash recapped Collins’ reporting, saying “our understanding is that, no, the White House didn’t know,” and said that she had heard the same information from her own sources.

“They were blindsided,” said Bash. “They found out when we all did, when the former president put out that press release.”

“Given how buttoned up and cautious Merrick Garland is, especially with something as sticky as this, it’s hard to imagine that they gave the White House a heads-up,” she added.

Berman agreed that Garland “at least from outward views, has been so careful up until this point,” and asked David Axelrod for his reactions.

Axelrod commented that he believed that Garland understood “he has crossed a rubicon here — if you are going to prosecute a former President of the United States, you’d better be pretty darn sure that you have an open-and-shut case.”

“I do agree, I would be stunned if anybody in the White House, including the president, knew,” Axelrod said, noting how an “essential part” of Biden’s campaign had been criticizing Trump for “intervening” and “meddling in these kinds of investigations.”

The DOJ “must feel very sure that they have something here,” Axelrod concluded. “I don’t think this is a fishing expedition. I think they know what fish they’re looking for here.”

Watch the video clips above, via CNN.