(AFP) – Donald Trump has filed a $100 million claim against the US Justice Department alleging the 2022 FBI raid on his Florida home to recover classified documents was “political persecution.” The claim, which was filed last week but only came to light on Monday, accuses Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray of seeking to “injure” the former president.
Trump was charged in Florida with 31 counts of “willful retention of national defense information” for refusing to return top-secret documents taken from the White House when he left office. A federal judge dismissed the case last month on the grounds that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges, was unlawfully appointed.
FBI agents, acting on a search warrant approved by a federal judge, raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on August 8, 2022, to recover classified documents, including records from the Pentagon and CIA, which were allegedly being kept unsecured at his home. Trump, the Republican party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential race, is seeking punitive damages of $100 million and to recover at least $15 million in legal costs, according to his claim.
“Garland and Wray should have never approved a raid and subsequent indictment of President Trump because the well-established protocol with former US presidents is to use non-enforcement means to obtain records of the United States,” the claim alleges. “Garland and Wray decided to stray from established protocol to injure President Trump,” the claim says, in what it alleged was “a clear intent to engage in political persecution.”
The Justice Department has 180 days to respond to the claim, which was filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act. If the parties are unable to reach a settlement, the suit would go to federal court. Trump has a history of filing civil suits and then withdrawing them at the last minute. He was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to a porn star.
Trump also faces charges in Washington and Georgia related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
© 2024 AFP
