Former President Donald Trump said Monday that Mar-a-Lago, the Florida club where he lives, is “currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” Trump said in a statement. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
While there are not many details known about the raid, Trump said “they even broke into my safe!” A source close to Trump confirmed to CBS News that the former president was not at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
It’s unclear what the FBI raid is in connection to. There are several investigations known to be underway into the former president, although a civil probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James into the Trump Organization and an inquiry in Fulton County, Georgia into whether Trump and his allies interfered in the 2020 election would likely not require involvement from federal authorities.
Following the House Jan. 6 committee’s blockbuster public hearings this summer, the Justice Department began an investigation into a scheme by Trump allies to put up phony electors in seven battleground states that President Joe Biden won.
Trump in his statement called the raid an “attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”
Trump spoke over the weekend at the CPAC convention in Dallas, where he repeated the false claim that he won the 2020 election and said “now we may have to do it again,” alluding to a 2024 run. He has been active in holding rallies for his endorsed candidates in the 2022 midterm primaries.
At the end of the statement, Trump also called for donations to his “Save America” PAC.
The White House declined to comment on the raid.
Arden Farhi contributed to this report.
