Donald Trump has continued to attack the FBI after the agency executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago residence on Monday, even suggesting that federal law enforcement officers may have been “planting” evidence while conducting their search.
“The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting,'” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
But legal experts are pointing out that such claims would only further confirm Trump’s guilt.
“Innocent people don’t plead the 5th and don’t accuse the DOJ of planting evidence,” legal analyst Brian Karem said.
“Nothing could confirm Trump’s guilt more than this statement this morning suggesting the FBI planted evidence,” former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski tweeted on Wednesday. “He got caught and he knows it. This is what guilty people say,” Filipkowski wrote. “Expect this to be the new GOP talking point.”
Nothing could confirm Trump’s guilt more than this statement this morning suggesting the FBI planted evidence. He got caught and he knows it. This is what guilty people say. Expect this to be the new GOP talking point. pic.twitter.com/vLhs4FacNQ
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 10, 2022
He was right. Republicans, like Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have already begun parroting Trump’s claim that the FBI may have planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago.
“I think there is an extremely high probability that the FBI planted ‘evidence’ against President Trump,” Greene tweeted on Wednesday. “Otherwise WHY would they NOT allow his attorneys or anyone watch them while they conducted their unprecedented raid? They know the consequences of an empty handed power move.”
On Thursday, Paul appeared on Fox News to push the same talking point:
Rand Paul suggests the FBI may have planted evidence in boxes they seized from Mar-a-Lago pic.twitter.com/3yd6I9tlaa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 10, 2022
Richard Signorelli, a former assistant U.S. attorney, condemned Trump’s allies for even suggesting that federal agents would plant evidence.
“These are baseless lies but unfortunately will be believed by deranged, ignorant MAGA cult members,” Signorelli tweeted.
I condemn the attorneys suggesting that evidence may have been planted by the FBI at MAL. These are baseless lies but unfortunately will be believed by deranged, ignorant MAGA cult members. Lawyers should not lie or deceive ever.
— Richard Signorelli (@richsignorelli) August 10, 2022
