In response to the FBI searching Trump’s Florida home, he and his supporters in Congress and right-wing media have reverted to saying a lot of nonsense quickly.
Trump has made it difficult to discern what is true and not with an onslaught of conspiracy theories, variety of distracting lies and an eager cast of supporters.
Conspiracy theories about the search
Trump posted on his social media platform on Wednesday that the FBI may have planted evidence. His legal team had been suggesting the same thing. Alina Habba, a member of Trump’s legal team said on Fox, that she’s concerned that the FBI may have planted something.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky echoed this question on Wednesday, wondering on Fox how we know “they won’t put things into those boxes to entrap him.” Fox host Jesse Watters had gone further on Tuesday, saying the FBI was “probably” planting evidence, and Paul’s campaign had adopted the “probably” by Friday.
There is just zero basis for any of this.
Senator Marco Rubio believes that the federal government may be searching Trump’s properties for sensitive information and using this as an excuse to do so. Conversely, Anna Perez suggested that a recent raid was actually about preventing Trump from exposing crimes in the government. It is possibly more plausible than Ms. Perez’s claim.
Deception in the media
Another right wing activist, Charlie Kirk, falsely claimed that the FBI was “occupying Trump’s home- a military occupation.” His claims were inaccurate in several ways, including his allegation that the military was involved in this search.
Lara Trump says she believes the searchers to be unannounced, breaking into your home and taking whatever they please from it.
A source confirmed that the FBI warned Secret Service of the search at least an hour before they arrived, and that agents met up with FBI agents upon arrival to provide unrestricted access. The search warrant does not allow searchers to take anything they want, and the Department of Justice requested information about what was seized by filing a document – which Trump consented to.
A Republican congressman went on Fox on Thursday and confidently claimed that he had seen evidence of agents going rogue. However, there was no such finding in fact. His evidence stemmed from an unsubstantiated report that removed any suspicion. He also falsely assumed that Attorney General Garland himself had stated he was unaware of the search warrant decision, when in truth, it was Garland who approved the action himself.
The complicated world of US politics
Trump and his supporters tried to avert attention by pointing the finger at prominent Democrats.
NARA says President Obama’s records are being taken care of. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued a Friday statement explaining it has “exclusive legal and physical custody” of the Obama-era records, that NARA itself moved about 30 million pages of unclassified records to one of its own facilities in the Chicago area, that the classified Obama-era records are maintained in a separate NARA facility near Washington, and that “former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”
Concerning Hillary Clinton, both President Trump and some of his media defenders went back to their claim that she had “acid washed” emails. This is a fabrication loosely based on the fact that an email-deletion software program happens to be called BleachBit. Sean Hannity was more specific, falsely claiming Tuesday night that Clinton had “poured acid” on emails.
Trump also suggested that there was something suspicious about the fact that, he said, his lawyers had not been allowed to witness the search, posting on his social media platform on Wednesday: “Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?” But there is nothing unusual about this; lawyers don’t have a right to be in the room to monitor a search.
The Trump lawyer says the Department of Justice is trying to find an easy way to prosecute Trump. She claims that he has “the most popular president, and probably the most famous president, in American history.”
Trump’s 41% average Gallup rating is significantly lower than any other president since 1938.
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