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FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday that agents raised concerns about probable cause before the 2022 search of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, but were overruled by Justice Department prosecutors under the Biden administration.
Patel confirmed the details after the release of newly declassified emails by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The records show FBI and Justice Department communications in the months leading up to the Aug. 8, 2022, raid, indicating agents questioned whether the legal standard for a search warrant had been met.
“It’s true – we just turned over documents to Capitol Hill to be made public showing the FBI told DOJ they did not have probable cause for raiding President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago but DOJ ‘didn’t give a damn’ and did it anyway,” Patel wrote on X.
The search of President Trump’s Florida residence resulted in the seizure of thousands of documents from his first term, some of which were classified. Trump was later charged with 40 federal counts related to the handling of classified materials. He pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
In July 2024, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the indictment, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith had been improperly appointed. After President Trump’s re-election, the Justice Department dropped its appeal, citing longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
The emails released by Grassley span from June 2022 through the days leading up to the raid and show repeated internal warnings from FBI personnel. Agents expressed concern that evidence supporting probable cause was thin, outdated, or based on a single unverified source.
“Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents,” an FBI official serving as an assistant special agent in charge wrote. The official described information suggesting additional boxes remained at Mar-a-Lago as “single source,” “not corroborated,” and potentially “dated.”
FBI officials also urged prosecutors to consider less confrontational options, including notifying President Trump’s attorneys that a warrant was being prepared and seeking voluntary compliance. Trump’s legal team had offered cooperation, according to the emails.
