(LifeSiteNews) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump has denied and mocked the claim that the FBI’s Monday raid on his Florida home was launched in a bid to recover classified documents concerning nuclear weapons.
The Washington Post made the accusation in a Thursday report, citing unnamed sources who declined to provide details backing up their claims. According to The Post, “Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in” the raid, “according to people familiar with the investigation.”
Trump responded in a Friday morning post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” he said, adding that the “[s]ame sleazy people” were “involved.”
Former President Trump denies report that FBI agents were looking for classified documents related to nuclear weapons, among other items, when they searched his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this week. https://t.co/5DHHN8ZDo8
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 12, 2022
Conservative Treehouse pointed out that the Mar-a-Lago raid “coincides with developments in the civil lawsuit [Trump] filed against Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and the entire cabal of DOJ, FBI and Clinton campaign operatives via the fake Trump-Russia collusion hoax known as ‘spygate.’”
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In the Friday statement, Trump went on to blast the FBI for allegedly searching his residence without permitting others, including his lawyers, to be present, and once again floated a suggestion that agents may have been “[p]lanting information.”
Conservative commentators were also quick to slam The Washington Post’s claim, pointing out that if Trump was in possession of top secret nuclear weapons documents, federal agents should not have taken a year and a half to obtain them.
“Just to get this straight, we’re now supposed to believe that the material Trump had stored in his house was nuclear content so sensitive the FBI waited a year and a half to go get it and used the National Archives as a prop to do so?” wrote Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro.
Just to get this straight, we’re now supposed to believe that the material Trump had stored in his house was nuclear content so sensitive the FBI waited a year and a half to go get it and used the National Archives as a prop to do so?
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 12, 2022
“If the FBI waited 18 months to seize ‘nuclear documents’ from a country club, everyone at the agency should be fired,” suggested Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak.
If the FBI waited 18 months to seize “nuclear documents” from a country club, everyone at the agency should be fired.
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) August 12, 2022
The Washington Post’s allegation came just hours after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland had confirmed to reporters that he personally gave the go-ahead for the FBI raid on Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
During the August 11 press conference, Garland said he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant” of Trump’s residence, adding the “department does not take such a decision lightly.”
“The search warrant was authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause,” he explained, stopping short at explaining how probable cause was determined.
RELATED: ‘Pure politics’: Former DOJ official says FBI raid part of ‘plan’ to keep Trump out of White House
The attorney general also announced the Department of Justice had filed a motion to have the FBI search warrant unsealed, following an order from a federal magistrate judge.
Trump has also called for the document to be released.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me, much as they have done for the last 6 years,” Trump said in a statement Thursday night.
“This unprecedented political weaponization of law enforcement is inappropriate and highly unethical,” the former president said.
The FBI property receipt reviewed by Fox News on Friday reportedly indicates that agents removed about 20 boxes of items from Mar-a-Lago during the raid, including documents marked as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” referring to top secret or sensitive information.
“Less than 24 hours after AG Merrick Garland promised to only release information via official court filings, Garland’s DOJ has anonymously leaked information to The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal,” wrote Federalist CEO and co-founder Sean Davis.