Chris Lange, FISM News
A federal judge’s ruling has shed new light on President Biden’s involvement in the events leading up to the unprecedented seizure of 30 boxes of materials from Mar-a-Lago, despite the White House repeatedly denying having any advanced knowledge of the Aug. 8 FBI raid on former President Trump’s Florida residence.
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon’s Monday ruling granting former President Trump’s request for the appointment of a special master to review seized documents reveals that the National Archives consulted with President Biden on Trump’s executive privilege assertions regarding documents the former president handed over in January. The acting archivist also advised Trump in a letter that, per Biden’s request, the FBI would be granted access to those documents, despite objections from Trump’s legal team.
Cannon’s 24-page order provides additional insight into communications between President Biden and the National Archives that eventually led to the raid and further calls into question the timeline of events provided by the Justice Department which hints at some level of coordination between the White House and the Justice Department.
Cannon noted in her ruling that Trump and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) communicated throughout 2021 over disputed items in Trump’s possession. Trump ultimately handed over 15 boxes of items to NARA as a result of those discussions.
NARA subsequently advised the Justice Department that some of the items included markings of “classified national security information” and advised Trump on April 12, 2022, that all the items would be handed over to the Justice Department. Trump’s lawyers responded by requesting an opportunity to determine whether any privileged materials were contained in the boxes.
In her decision, Cannon wrote that after obtaining a brief delay, NARA informed Trump on May 10, 2022, that it would proceed with “provid[ing] the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President, beginning as early as Thursday, May 12, 2022.”
While the media previously reported that Biden deferred to NARA’s opinion on whether to grant or deny Trump’s claim of privilege, the language used in Cannon’s ruling revealed that the President actually asked NARA to hand the documents over to the FBI.
“This passage suggests a more direct connection between Biden and the investigation into Trump,” The Federalist senior legal correspondent Margot Cleveland wrote.
Another detail revealed by Cannon’s order exposes a small, yet potentially significant, anomaly in the chronology of events leading up to the raid.
On May 10, 2022, the archivist informed Trump’s lawyers that the “NARA will provide the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President, beginning as early as Thursday, May 12, 2022.” On May 11, 2022, before the Justice Department had actually received possession of the 15 boxes from NARA, the DOJ “obtained a grand jury subpoena,” for “[a]ny and all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the Office of Donald J. Trump bearing classification markings.”
Cleveland points out that the DOJ’s grand jury subpoena request for the documents was filed before it reviewed the items provided by NARA.
“And given that the DOJ obtained the subpoena the day after the NARA told Trump’s lawyer ‘the incumbent President’ had requested the archive provide the documents to the FBI, one must ask: Did Biden direct the DOJ to obtain the grand jury subpoena?” Cleveland wrote.
Ahead of Cannon’s decision, a handful of media outlets did point to the NARA’s letter to Trump’s attorney as evidence that President Biden was more involved in the events leading up to the raid than he or his administration let on. However, the reports were flagged by Politifact and Facebook as “false news and information,” The Western Journal reported.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Aug. 9 denied that Biden had any prior knowledge of the Mar-a-Lago raid.
“The president learned about this just like you all did — through the public reports and we learned about this just like the American people did,” Jean-Pierre said a day after the raid. “We did not know about this, and we had not been briefed. We learned about this as you all were reporting it.”
On Aug. 25, President Biden was asked by a reporter “how much advance notice did you have of the FBI’s plan to search Mar-a-Lago?”
“I didn’t have any advance notice. None. Zero. Not one single bit,” Biden replied.