FBI raided Mar-a-Lago TODAY as part of investigation into ‘classified material Trump took after departing White House’: Ex-president confirms ‘my home was under siege by large group of agents who even broke into my safe’

Donald Trump said on Monday that his Mar-a-Lago home has been raided by the FBI, reportedly as part of an investigation into whether the former president took classified documents with him when he left the White House.

Trump didn’t say specifically what the federal agents were looking for, just that his Florida home was ‘under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.’

‘They even broke into my safe!’ the former president complained.

The investigation is focused on material that Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, the New York Times reported.

The 15 boxes of material reportedly contained classified information, which would be a violation of federal law. The boxes were returned to the National Archives in January but agents were also looking to see if Trump had additional presidential records or any classified documents at the estate, the AP reported.

The search focused on the area of the club where Trump’s offices and personal quarters are, CNN reported.

The raid comes as Donald Trump is considering another bid for the presidency and his actions after the 2020 election, where he tried to invalidate Joe Biden’s victory, are under investigation by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

It began Monday morning and took several hours.

‘These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, 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 shocking statement released on Monday night.

‘After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.’

Trump, in his lengthy statement blasting the raid, called it ‘prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.

The Justice Department wouldn’t say whether Attorney General Merrick Garland had personally authorized the search but it’s highly unlikely a raid on a former president would take place without the AG giving it the stamp of approval.

The FBI gave US Secret Service agents at Mar-a-Lago advance notice and they cooperated letting them into the property, NBC News reported. The Secret Service agents but did not take part in investigation or search.

This meant the FBI did not have to break into the property or bust down any doors.

A search warrant does not suggest that criminal charges are near or even expected but it would have to be court authorized.

Garland and his DoJ are under heavy political pressure of their own – from Democrats who want the former president indicted to Republicans who will blast any probe as election-year politics.

Eric Trump told Fox News there was ‘nothing in the safe’ and confirmed the eraid was tied to the National Archives. He called it ‘outrageous’ and said ‘has to have come from POTUS and/or someone in White House.’

But President Joe Biden’s White House had no heads up on the raid. Senior White House officials found out about the FBI’s Mar a Lago raid on Twitter, the New York Times reported.

In his statement, Trump protrayed himself as a victim of shadowy government forces. FBI Director Christopher Wray was appointed to his position by then-President Trump.

Trump complained on Monday that ‘such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.’

‘They even broke into my safe! What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States,’ he said.

Trump did not appear to be Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, when the raid took place. He was in Texas over the weekend.

He usually spends August at his golf club in Bedminister, N.J. Photos posted to social media show him there on Sunday, posing with a newly-engaged couple.

But Trump was in New York City on Monday, reports said.

The raid was believed to be tied to a DoJ investigation into the boxes of records containing classified information that were taken to Mar-a-Lago.

In February, the National Archives and Records Administration asked DoJ to examine whether the former president violated federal law. There are multiple statutes governing classified information, including a law punishable by up to five years in prison that makes it a crime to remove such records and retain them at an unauthorized location.

National Archives officials recovered 15 boxes of White House materials from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in mid-January.

Among the items Trump had to return were correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Trump has described as ‘beautiful letters’ and a handwritten letter that former President Barack Obama had left behind in the Oval Office for his successor.

Some Republicans were immediately critical of the raid.

‘Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships But never before in America,’ wrote Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on Twitter.

Trump insisted, at the time, that the transfer of boxes to the National Archives and Records Administration was done ‘openly and willingly’.

‘Following collaborative and respectful discussions, the National Archives and Records Administration openly and willingly arranged with President Trump for the transport of boxes that contained letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and various articles,’ he wrote in the third person.

He added: ‘Some of this information will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People.

In response to the seizure of materials, the House Oversight and Reform Committee opened a probe into Trump’s improperly removing or destroying White House documents.

‘Removing or concealing government records is a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison,’ the congressional letter to NARA Archivist David Ferriero noted.

Trump also was known throughout his presidency to rip up pieces of paper, which is a violation of the Presidential Records Act.

The Presidential Records Act requires the White House to preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers the president touches and send them to the National Archives for safekeeping.

But Trump had the odd habit of ripping up papers when he’s done with them – what some aides call his unofficial ‘filing system.’

A group of staffers in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building was in charge of taping the records back together.

Fragments of paper collected from the Oval Office and the White House’s private residence were sent to records management office across the street from the White House to to be re-assembled with scotch tape and then sent on to the National Archives to be properly filed.

The former president also reported flushed records.

Maggie Haberman, a New York Times White House correspondent, claims in her upcoming book on the Trump presidency that Trump would give records the royal flush.

On Monday she claimed to have obtained pictures of presidential notes stuffed into the residence toilets from a former White House official who worked under the previous administration.

The images published by Axios on Monday purportedly show two sets of notes in the toilets, one of which is said to be located in a White House bathroom, and the other in an undisclosed location abroad during a foreign presidential trip – though the papers appeared to be handwritten rather than official documents.

One of the ripped up papers on top of a stack in the toilet shows what appears to be lawmakers names scrawled down in all capital letters in black sharpie.

Two names can be seen clearly on the paper – Rogers and Stefanik – although the rest of the torn up papers are mostly illegible.

It’s likely the names are referencing Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama and GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, a Trump defender.

Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich told Axios: ‘You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan.’

‘There’s enough people willing to fabricate stories like this in order to impress the media class — a media class who is willing to run with anything, as long as it anti-Trump,’ he added.

Trump is involved in several other legal matters, including the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

And a district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia is investigation whether Trump and his close associates sought to interfere in that state’s election, which Biden won.