Newly released internal FBI records show that agents did not believe they had established probable cause to search Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, raising fresh questions about one of the most controversial law-enforcement actions in modern U.S. political history.

The documents, made public Tuesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), reveal that the FBI’s Washington Field Office explicitly warned the Department of Justice that it did not believe the legal threshold for a search warrant had been met — even as senior DOJ officials pressed forward.

“The FBI does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ counterintelligence) that we have established probable cause for the search warrant,” an assistant special agent wrote in one internal communication.
The memo added that the Justice Department nevertheless insisted probable cause existed and sought a warrant with broad authority covering Trump’s residence, office, and storage areas at the Florida estate.

The disclosures directly contradict long-standing public assertions that the unprecedented raid — the first of a former president’s home — was backed by solid evidence and necessary to recover classified material.

According to the records, FBI agents spent roughly six weeks attempting to establish probable cause but found the effort “counterproductive.” Interviews with witnesses also failed to produce evidence that sensitive intelligence documents remained hidden at Mar-a-Lago after Trump’s legal team returned classified materials to the government in June 2022.

Despite those concerns, the raid went forward on August 8, 2022, igniting a political firestorm and becoming a cornerstone of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified records.

Grassley called the revelations “shocking,” accusing the Biden Justice Department of overriding the FBI’s own legal doubts. In a statement posted online, the Iowa Republican said the documents demonstrate a “miscarriage of justice” and show that federal prosecutors pushed ahead with the search despite internal warnings.

Additional emails released alongside the memo show FBI officials discussing the need for a “second path” to justify the warrant and expressing concern about the optics of searching the home of a former president. Senior FBI officials emphasized the need for the search to be conducted in a “professional, low-key manner,” acknowledging the political sensitivity of the operation.

The Mar-a-Lago raid ultimately led to the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump in June 2023 with dozens of felony counts related to the alleged mishandling and storage of classified documents. Prosecutors claimed sensitive materials were found in multiple locations throughout the resort, including a bedroom, bathroom, ballroom, and basement.

That case later collapsed. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the charges, ruling that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unlawful because it lacked congressional authorization.

The newly disclosed records are likely to intensify scrutiny of the DOJ’s decision-making and fuel renewed claims from Trump and his allies that the investigation was politically motivated from the start. They also raise broader concerns about whether federal law-enforcement standards were bent in a case that reshaped the political landscape, and helped define Trump’s ongoing clash with the justice system.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)