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Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that he believes the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida home will make him more likely to run for president in 2024.
Graham, R-S.C., also demanded more information on the impetus for the raid during comments at an event with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.
“At the end of the day I know there’s a tremendous burden on the Department of Justice in my view to explain their actions and I hope they will,” Graham said. “I talked to the president [Trump] just about an hour ago with Henry. One thing I can tell you is that I believed he was gonna run before — I’m stronger in my belief now.”
Trump announced on Monday that his palatial Florida residence had been raided. Sources told Fox News Digital the search was in connection with materials that Trump took with him from his time as president. Sources also said National Archives and Records Administration referred the case to the Justice Department, which recovered 15 boxes of classified materials from the home.
NANCY PELOSI REACTS TO FBI RAID ON TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO RESORT, SAYS AUTHORITIES HAD ‘JUSTIFICATION’
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that he expects the FBI to provide more information to the public about its raid on former President Donald Trump’s home.
(Fox News)
Trump announced on Monday that his palatial Florida residence had been raided. Sources told Fox News Digital the search was in connection with materials that Trump took with him from his time as president. Sources also said National Archives and Records Administration referred the case to the Justice Department, which recovered 15 boxes of classified materials from the home.
A source familiar told Fox News that the raid occurred early Monday morning. The source said agents brought a “safe cracker” and cracked a “relatively new” safe in Mar-a-Lago. The source told Fox News there was “nothing in it.”
Graham also said Tuesday that the fact the raid happened just three months before a major midterm election is suspect, and said there would be massive outrage if something similar happened to a Democrat.
“We’re 90 days before an election. The FBI sent agents to the home of a former president, the leading contender to be the nominee for 2024, and I want to know why,” Graham said. “I know doing this 90 days before an election reek of politics… Can you imagine if the roles were reversed here?”
At an appearance in Kentucky Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment on the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s home.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Graham said he doesn’t have a problem with the FBI “writ large,” but thinks it has a history of poor actions regarding Trump, particularly on its investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which has been disproved.
Some members of Senate GOP leadership have made similar comments to Graham’s, demanding transparency about the search. But Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment when asked about the raid Tuesday.
High-ranking congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have generally held off from making pointed statements in the immediate wake of the raid. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did, however, point out that there is a high evidentiary standard for law enforcement to get a search warrant.
“All I know about that is what is in the public domain. I was surprised that it flashed on my phone last evening, so I don’t really have too much to say except that to have a visit like that, you need a warrant. To have a warrant, you need justification. And that says that no one is above the law, not even a president or a former president of the United States,” Pelosi told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
The FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s home Monday in connection with a probe on documents Trump allegedly took from the White House while he was president.
(Getty Images)
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., attacked the GOP reaction to the Trump raid during an appearance on MSNBC Monday, saying many Republicans have “little respect for rule of law.” However, Schumer did not address the FBI raid directly. A spokesperson for Schumer said the majority leader does not currently have further comment on the raid.
A Senate Democratic aide told Fox News Digital top Democrats in the chamber are waiting for more information to come in on the raid before making significant comments or taking major actions in response to it.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Anders Hagstrom, Stephanie Pagones and David Spunt contributed to this report.
