Donald Trump’s drive to paint the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search to recover classified documents as a political witch hunt is drawing rebukes from ex-Justice Department officials who warn such attacks can cause violence and pose a real threat to the physical safety of law enforcement, reports The Guardian. The concerns have not deterred Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other Trump allies from making inflammatory remarks echoing the former president. The unrelenting attacks by Trump and loyalists such as McCarthy, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Steve Bannon and false conspiracy theorist Alex Jones against law enforcement have continued despite strong evidence that Trump kept hundreds of classified documents illegally.
Before the August 8 search, Trump and his attorneys stonewalled FBI and National Archives requests for the return of all classified documents and did not fully comply with a grand jury subpoena in a criminal probe of Trump’s hoarding of government documents. The FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home recovered 33 boxes with over 100 classified documents, adding to the 200 classified records Trump had earlier returned in response to multiple federal requests. At a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump branded the FBI and main DOJ “political monsters” and labelled president Joe Biden “an enemy of the state.” McCarthy mimicked Trump’s high decibel attacks on the court-approved FBI raid by calling it an “assault on democracy.” “I have been dealing with law enforcement and the criminal justice system for close to 40 years. I have never seen the type or virulence of attacks being made every day against the FBI, DOJ lawyers, and judges,” said former DOJ inspector general Michael Bromwich. “It’s a chorus led by Trump but that includes elected officials at every level. It is dangerous and unacceptable.” Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. Attorney and ex-chief of staff to former FBI director James Comey, said, “The attacks on federal law enforcement are sickening and reckless.”