Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) criticized the FBI’s actions during the most recent Mar-a-Lago raid.
In a Sunday appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Crenshaw claimed that the FBI had gone above and beyond the call of duty earlier this month to retrieve secret information from former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
Given that Trump has been cooperating with federal agents for some time, according to Crenshaw, the raid on Mar-a-Lago was wholly unjustified. He also rejected the notion that Trump had nuclear weapons-related secret information in the boxes of papers the FBI confiscated.
Crenshaw said, “I’m not one to withhold criticism and even make my own side furious. I want to discover what really happened. However, I’ll be up forward and say that I find it difficult to defend what the Department of Justice did in this case.”
“What it actually comes down to is this,” he said. “There is no doubt that having classified information outside of a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) is harmful. There is a segmented infrastructure there that is not secret. However, there are measures you may do to lessen the impact and fix the problem. And I’ve yet to come across any proof that Trump was ever requested to return these records.”
“He has been working with them on these problems for months at this point. Why, then, do you take it so far? And I believe that’s the reason why Republicans are reacting so strongly. You can see everyone coming together. Regardless of how someone feels about Trump, a lot of people appear to be uniting over this problem since it seems unfair and there seems to have been a long history of Democrats undermining the Department of Justice’s legitimacy. And I believe that’s why people are understandably upset.”
Crenshaw said, “This is a highly unusual move. And you know that this is inevitably political when you are attacking an ex-president who could seek office again. The political and legal dimensions of this situation are inextricably linked. And I think it has caused them to behave appropriately.”
Crenshaw was pushed by Tapper when it was pointed out that at least one of Trump’s attorneys had signed a written declaration to the Department of Justice stating that all classified information had been handed over to the federal government.
Crenshaw said, “Lawyers did sign the statement stating they had nothing left. Now, that’s either a serious error on the part of the attorneys or it’s malicious, but even if it’s malicious, why not say, ‘Hey, we don’t trust you, now let us come back, let’s look through these boxes again?’ Do any of us really think Donald Trump reads classified material on nuclear weapons by his bedside at night?”
These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.
To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].
Family-Friendly Content
Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More