The FBI has searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the former president has announced.
“These are dark times for our nation as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” he said Trump in a statement.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States.
Image: Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate (Image: AP)
“After working and cooperating with the relevant government agencies, this unannounced attack on my home was neither necessary nor appropriate.
“It’s prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the justice system, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for president in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will anything to stop the Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Justice Department has been investigating the discovery of boxes of records containing classified information that were taken to Mar-a-Lago after Trump’s presidency ended.
Analysis: Sky correspondent David Blevins in Washington
Not since the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon half a century ago has America seen anything like it.
President Trump claims FBI agents flooded his Florida home and even broke into a safe while executing a search warrant.
He was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time and is understood to be at Trump Towers, his New York residence.
The White House says it received no warning. The raid is likely to have been approved by the Attorney General.
Multiple sources are linking the search warrant to classified documents, but the FBI is not commenting at this stage.
To obtain a search warrant, prosecutors must establish probable cause for a crime and then persuade authorities that it is warranted.
A prosecutor gives an affidavit to an FBI agent, and then a federal judge carefully considers it.
President Trump is being investigated over allegations that he mishandled classified information and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
But no one really expected to see FBI agents raiding the home of a former President of the United States.
He quickly politicized the research, claiming that such an “assault” could only take place in a “Third World country.”
It was unclear if the FBI search was related to that investigation.
A separate investigation into efforts by Trump allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol has also intensified in Washington.