Donald Trump sparked both disbelief and some support on Wednesday with his suggestion that language from an FBI search warrant executed in 2022 on his Florida mansion implied President Joe Biden wanted armed agents to shoot him.
In response to a court filing outlining FBI plans for the search at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump kept classified national security documents post-presidency, Trump claimed the filing indicated the Justice Department was prepared to use deadly force against him and his family.
Trump’s assertion, widely circulated in a fundraising email shared by US media, has been criticized as a distortion of standard FBI language permitting agents to use deadly force if someone is in imminent danger.
Despite calls for condemnation from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Trump’s allies have echoed his claims. Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance, suggested on X that the Justice Department and FBI had sanctioned Trump’s assassination.
However, the FBI clarified that the search warrant procedure followed standard protocol. The bureau, after recovering over 100 classified documents, including top-secret materials, obtained judicial approval for the raid due to Trump’s alleged retention of national defense information and obstruction of government efforts to retrieve it.
Trump, facing 40 felony charges, has denied wrongdoing, and his trial has been indefinitely postponed. His campaign labeled reporting of the fundraising email as “a sickening attempt to run cover for Joe Biden,” alleging Biden’s corruption and threat to democracy.
