Trump Claims “Persecution” and Launches His Most Idiotic Lawsuit Yet
Donald Trump is suing the Justice Department for alleged damages incurred from the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022.
Trump’s legal team said in a legal filing on Monday that there was “tortious conduct by the United States against President Trump” in the search, calling it “political persecution” and “unconstitutional.” He is asking the Justice Department for $100 million.
The court filing accuses Attorney General Merrick Garland, who appointed special prosecutor Jack Smith to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed, of engaging in “malicious prosecution” against him.
“Garland and Wray should have never approved a raid and subsequent indictment of President Trump because the well-established protocol with former U.S. presidents is to use non-enforcement means to obtain records of the United States,” Trump’s attorney Daniel Epstein wrote. The DOJ has six months to respond, and the case will move to federal court in the Southern District of Florida if it isn’t resolved in that time.
Two years ago, the FBI searched Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate as part of its investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. In June 2023, Trump was federally indicted on 37 criminal counts over his handling of the documents, but the case was dismissed last month by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who presides in the Southern District of Florida.
Trump’s lawsuit is rather brazen, and it’s only possible because Cannon, who seems heavily biased toward Trump, dismissed his classified documents case on the flimsy grounds of the special counsel’s appointment being unconstitutional. Smith has already appealed the dismissal of the classified documents case, so the former president and convicted felon isn’t even out of the woods yet.
Trump seems to be banking on winning in November, which raises the question of whether he’ll simply order the DOJ to pay up if he returns to the White House.
