OUT ON A LIMB: DOJ source calls raid a ‘spectacular backfire,’ claims AG Garland didn’t approve it.
The story concludes with another big revelation. It claims that AG Merrick Garland was being updated on the National Archives investigation and knew about the grand jury but did not approve the search Monday. Newsweek’s source claims Garland had “no prior knowledge” of the time of the raid. Instead it was FBI Director Christopher Wray who approved the search. Finally, the source adds, “It really is a case of the Bureau misreading the impact.”
This is a lot of new information but I think the big take-aways are that this had nothing to do with Jan. 6 and that these DOJ sources are now feeling a lot of pressure, enough that they are a) trying to explain themselves and b) blaming the “spectacular backfire” on the FBI and the US Attorney while trying to insulate AG Garland from the blowback.
As Scott Johnson writes at Power Line, “We saw the FBI agents holding the fort down outside Mar-a-Lago with big weapons. It was sickening. Christopher Wray should be sent packing and the FBI should be dissolved and reconstituted. It has become an unaccountable and politically corrupt organization.”
Related: FBI Quest for Trump Documents Started With Breezy Chats, Tour of a Crowded Closet. “FBI officials showed up with instructions to keep the search as unobtrusive as possible, with agents dressed in plainclothes and told not to take any weapons, people familiar with the plan said. The Secret Service was notified and then Mr. Trump’s lawyers. On site, the FBI asked for several things, according to a person familiar, including a diagram of the sprawling building and that surveillance cameras be turned off, citing officer safety.”
Earlier:
