According to government documents reviewed by Just The News, President Joe Biden’s White House was intimately involved in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal probe into former President Donald Trump,
Until earlier this year, as noted in several correspondences between Trump’s attorneys and members of Biden’s administration, it was revealed that the federal government appeared poised to waive Trump’s claims of executive privilege over documents that Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago.
According to Just The News-
“The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives as early as April, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the federal historical agency from Trump’s Florida home.
By May, Su conveyed to the Archives that President Joe Biden would not object to waiving his predecessor’s claims to executive privilege, a decision that opened the door for DOJ to get a grand jury to issue a subpoena compelling Trump to turn over any remaining materials he possessed from his presidency.”
- Just The News
Acting National Archivist, Debra Steidel Wall, in a letter on May 10th, to Trump’s legal team, confirmed the White House’s involvement in the DOJ probe against Trump. Wall wrote-
“On April 11, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office — affirming a request from the Department of Justice supported by an FBI letterhead memorandum — formally transmitted a request that NARA provide the FBI access to the 15 boxes for its review within seven days, with the possibility that the FBI might request copies of specific documents following its review of the boxes,”
“The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported “protective assertion of executive privilege.”…I have therefore decided not to honor the former President’s “protective” claim of privilege.”
-Debra Steidel Wall, Acting National Archivist
Although the White House previously claimed to have “no advanced knowledge” of the recent FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, these documents, reviewed by Just The News, are the strongest pieces of evidence showing the Biden White House’s involvement in the DOJ probe. While the White House claims they had no specific knowledge of the search warrant or the raid, this level of intense participation, through waiving executive privilege, was crucial to the DOJ investigation and set the stage for making the raid possible.
This decision not to honor Trump’s claims of executive privilege, was made by Wall, who appeared to rely on a Supreme Court precedent that “strongly suggests that a former President may not successfully assert executive privilege ‘against the very Executive Branch in whose name the privilege is invoked.'” This case, however was ruled before Congress’s current Presidential Records Act was enacted.
In a letter by Wall to Trump’s attorneys, who returned a set 15 boxes by Trump’s team, to the National Archives in February, the claim was that the former president had items marked as “classified national security information”.
Wall’s letter further explained, that after the National Archives reviewed those documents, telling the DOJ about the potentially classified material, which prompted the DOJ to ask Biden to request the National Archives turn over access of the documents to the FBI. And apparently the process snow-balled from there.
Reportedly, Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran spoke with then-White House Deputy Counsel, Jonathan Su about Trump’s executive privilege claim over the documents in the spring. In his letter to National Archives General Counsel Gary Stern, dated April 29, Corcoran wrote-
“We have requested the ability to review the documents. That review is necessary in order to ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege. We would respectfully request that you restrict access to the documents until we have had the opportunity to review the documents and to consult with President Donald J. Trump so that he may personally make any decision to assert a claim of constitutionally based privilege.”
- Evan Corcoran, Trump Lawyer
Wall then confirmed the Biden administration would not “honor the former President’s ‘protective’ claim of privilege” after Corcoran sent his letter to Stern. Then, weeks after Wall’s letter to Corcoran, the DOJ sent Trump’s attorney a grand jury subpoena, requesting the return of any national security documents left at Mar-a-Lago, roughly two months before the FBI raid on Trump’s home.
Biden’s White House, literally denied his executive privilege, without allowing a review of the documents returned, and then escalated the matter to the grand jury level, just two months before the raid. Trumps claims of working with these government entities, prior to this invasion of his 4th Amendment right to privacy, is truthful and accurate. Since the White House appeared to hold all the cardsm with the disallowance of his executive privilege – they essentially could barrel ahead irrespective of his level of cooperation. Trump was not given the chance to reply, to any other request. Since the raid, Trump has clearly indicated that he would have complied, with further document requests from law enforcement, had they asked.
It would seem they did not care to ask, and preferred to go on a “shopping trip” of his entire estate, looking for whatever they could find, even among his personal affects. They were on a fact-finding trip, under the guise of papers they said were related to classified documents. So why the raid? To find ANYTHING they could seize, even those documents of attorney client privilege, all while his legal counsel was not allowed to be present for the search.
They, it would seem, were looking for whatever they could find, to charge him with, in their ongoing investigation of him. How unbelievable!
Further, criticizing the Biden administration’s waiver of Trump’s executive privilege claim, legal scholar Alan Dershowitz said in his interview with Just The News-
“I was very surprised. The current president should not be able to waive the executive privilege of a predecessor, without the consent of the former president. Otherwise, [privilege] means nothing,” Dershowitz said. “What president will ever discuss anything in private if he knows the man who beat him can and will disclose it.” He continued-
“The best thinking is that an incumbent president cannot waive the right of the previous president. It would make a mockery of the whole notion of privilege”
- Alan Dershowitz, Legal Scholar
Trump has routinely criticized the FBI for conducting the “illegal” raid on his Mar-a-Lago home. In a statement on TRUTH Social he said-
“My attorneys and representatives were cooperating fully, and very good relationships had been established. The government could have had whatever they wanted, if we had it,”
-Former President Donald Trump
It is little wonder why Trump, who has lived with the most scrutiny for over six years of anyone to hold elected office, posts statements on Truth Social -
“Does ANYBODY really believe that the White House didn’t know about this?” ….“WITCH HUNT!”
-Former President Donald Trump
As a footnote, it has recently been brought to light that, sources close to Trump have confirmed to Breitbart News, that the General Services Administration (GSA) packed the boxes of documents, that he took with him to Mar-a-Lago, not political staffers. This should prove an interesting twist in this sordid soap opera, the DOJ is calling an investigation.
If this could happen to TRUMP – it could happen to any American citizen, who falls out of the good graces of the ruling party. Our freedoms are being eroded daily by Biden, his administration and those in power in the Democratic Party. America be vigilant and stand your ground.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
-Thomas Jefferson