Democratic partisan politics emerged as an issue in the reasoning behind the FBI's Mar a Lago raid.
Conservative commentators were quick to voice suspicion that Democratic machinations were the real reason for the raid.
The suspicions of political pressure arose in light of a Justice Department filing over whether a judge should appoint a special master to sift out any seized records that are under attorney-client privilege.
Included in the filing is a February 18 letter from the National Archives responding to a list of questions from Manhattan Democrat Carolyn B. Maloney, chairwoman of the House oversight and reform committee.
The letter responded to eight questions from Maloney on how the government was handling the presidential files dispute.
Maloney -- who just lost a primary election to Jerry Nadler -- wanted to make sure that Joe Biden's political appointee to head the Justice Department, Merrick Garland, had been notified that Trump had removed his records from the White House. Democrats are now arguing that the records aren't really his and that the federal government owns them. This interpretation is a novel one when applied to a former president.
Though there has been a political tussle over possession of these records, neither the Biden White House nor Biden's national security adviser and staff members sounded congressional or public alarms over any danger posed by Trump's retaining of the seized files. In fact, the White House denied that Biden was even informed that an FBI raid was in the offing at Mar a Lago, indicating that the file contents were not a high priority issue in the White House.
National Archives letter
https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/ferriero-response-to-02.09.2022-maloney-letter.02.18.2022.pdf
Conservative commentators were quick to voice suspicion that Democratic machinations were the real reason for the raid.
The suspicions of political pressure arose in light of a Justice Department filing over whether a judge should appoint a special master to sift out any seized records that are under attorney-client privilege.
Included in the filing is a February 18 letter from the National Archives responding to a list of questions from Manhattan Democrat Carolyn B. Maloney, chairwoman of the House oversight and reform committee.
The letter responded to eight questions from Maloney on how the government was handling the presidential files dispute.
Maloney -- who just lost a primary election to Jerry Nadler -- wanted to make sure that Joe Biden's political appointee to head the Justice Department, Merrick Garland, had been notified that Trump had removed his records from the White House. Democrats are now arguing that the records aren't really his and that the federal government owns them. This interpretation is a novel one when applied to a former president.
Though there has been a political tussle over possession of these records, neither the Biden White House nor Biden's national security adviser and staff members sounded congressional or public alarms over any danger posed by Trump's retaining of the seized files. In fact, the White House denied that Biden was even informed that an FBI raid was in the offing at Mar a Lago, indicating that the file contents were not a high priority issue in the White House.
National Archives letter
https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/ferriero-response-to-02.09.2022-maloney-letter.02.18.2022.pdf
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