Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, urged at a press conference Friday that Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray explain “the imminent threat for national security on which they based their decision” to seek out the former president. Trump’s house in Mar-a-Lago and for information on an informant who allegedly helped the FBI.
“There were a lot of other options available to them,” Turner said. “We believe that after today’s release, these questions will still remain unanswered.”
Turner praised Garland for requesting that the search warrant and property receipt from the search be unsealed, but he criticized the FBI’s “method” of searching the former president’s Florida home.
“We are very concerned about the method used to attack Mar-a-Largo over the past nine hours while they were at the former president’s home,” Turner said. “We are pleased that Attorney General Garland has begun the process of releasing certain information to the American public.”
“But it will still leave many questions unanswered,” he added.
Turner said Republicans would send a letter to Wray today asking about an informant who gave investigators advice about the possibility of additional classified documents at the Palm Beach club.
“We are also very concerned about disturbing reports that there was an informant, possibly even someone undercover, at Mar-a-Lago or around former President Donald Trump,” Turner said. “What is the relationship between the FBI and the person allegedly used in this process?”
Other Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee described news of the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid as the latest in a series of Justice Department actions targeting Trump and protecting Democrats.
New York Representative Elise Stefanik, a member of the GOP leadership, called Monday’s search “a complete abuse and overstepping of her authority.”
“As the American people know, unfortunately, this is the same agency leadership that protected Hillary Clinton, James Comey and continues to protect Hunter Biden. The same agency leadership that perpetrated the fake Russian hoax for years “, she said.
In response to a question from CNN’s Daniella Diaz, Turner parted ways with Trump supporters calling for “deimbursing the FBI.”
“We support our men and women in uniform who are part of law enforcement,” Turner said. “And we ask anyone who has made outrageous statements like that to question them and not us.”
When asked if there was a situation that would warrant the FBI searching Trump’s home, Turner said, “It would be very, very narrow of anything that just contains the umbrella of nuclear weapons, which gets would elevate to the level of an immediate threat to national security. .”
When pressed, Turner added: “There are a number of things they could show us, and I don’t want to speculate what that would be, it would obviously increase to the level of maybe you had no options. But I would be very, very, very surprised at what these consider the extent of what they could have done on top of that, including going to court, trying to enforce the subpoena, demanding have the documents produced in court.
“It would be very unusual for a president to have anything, even in the Oval Office, that rises to the necessary level of imminent threat,” he added.
Utah GOP Rep. Chris Stewart said the American people will wonder if the search was political in nature until the Justice Department releases more information, pushing back on questions about whether it would be appropriate for the FBI to seize highly classified documents, even those related to nuclear weapons.
“I think it’s naive to assume that the American people wouldn’t question whether this is political. Of course, they will ask themselves the question. Look at what has happened over the past five years. And look at the premise of most of your questions,” Stewart said.
“’Was it nuclear?’ Hey, heck maybe it was aliens,” he added. “That’s the goal. We don’t know. We’re asking them to tell us. And until they tell us, we’re going to have questions like this. And the presumption is going to be that it’s There is a way to depoliticize this. Give us the information.
Additionally, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee’s top Republican, told reporters upon entering the House chamber that he thought Garland and Wray should address the search for Mar-a-Lago. with legislators.
“Merrick Garland and Chris Wray should be in front of us today, we’re all here. The Judiciary Committee Republicans are here, why aren’t they coming to talk to us today?” said Jordan.
