Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump declares himself ‘as innocent as a person can be’ in Truth Social rant on FBI raid

Says ‘Fake News Media is pushing hard for the Sleaze to do something that should not be done’

Eric Garcia
Thursday 25 August 2022 11:21 EDT
Comments
'Is Trump a crook?: Nancy Pelosi sparks laughter with response

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Former president Donald Trump declared himself “as innocent as a person can be” in a Thursday rant after the FBI raided his home earlier this month.

Mr Trump made the remarks on his networking platform Truth Social on Thursday, where he spouted off many tidbits of right-wing talking points and outright misinformation.

“Even though I am as innocent as a person can be, and despite MY campaign being spied on by the Radical Left, the FISA COURT being lied to and defrauded, all of the many Hoaxes and Scams that were illegally placed on my by very sick & demented people, and without even mentioning the many crimes of Joe and Hunter Biden, all revealed in great detail in the Laptop From Hell, it looks more and more like the Fake News Media is pushing hard for the Sleaze to do something that should not be done,” he said.

The former president also criticised President Joe Biden, who said on Wednesday that he had “not one single bit” of advance notice about the search on Mar-a-Lago.

“Does anyone really believe this,” Mr Trump posted.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that the former president kept more than 300 classified documents at his home at Mar-a-Lago, which prompted the FBI to execute a search warrant on the estate in Palm Beach Florida.

A 10 May letter from the National Archives and Records Administration released showed that Mr Trump’s attorneys never claimed that the former president declassified any of the documents the FBI retrieved at his home.

The letter to one of the president’s lawyers, M Evan Corcoran, revealed that on 12 April, Mr Trump’s attorneys sent a letter asking the Biden administration to inspect the records contained in the 15 boxes that officials picked up from Mar-a-Lago. They also tried to delay the FBI access to boxes for an Intelligence Community review, with Mr Corcoran saying Mr Trump would be making a “protective assertion of executive privilege” if they did not received the delay.

Mr Trump’s team also sued the FBI, requesting a third party known as a “special master” to review the documents and determine whether any of them should be returned to the former president.

-Andrew Feinberg contributed to this report.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in