By Steve Neavling
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday forcefully rejected former President Trump’s false claims that the FBI was prepared to kill him when agents raided his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Garland called the allegations “false” and “extremely dangerous.”
In a campaign funding email and on social media earlier this week, Trump made the absurd claim that the bureau essentially planned to assassinate him when agents executed a search warrant at his Florida residence.
Trump and his allies were referring to a law enforcement document that outlines the FBI’s plans to search his estate in August 2022. On a page is a “policy statement” that indicates lethal force is the last resort when a subject poses an “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury” to law enforcement in the document or another person.
There’s nothing unusual about the policy statement. It’s standard language about use of force while executing a warrant, the FBI and Garland said.
“The document that has been referred to in the allegation is the Justice Department standard policy, limiting the use of force.”
“As the FBI advises, it is part of the standard operations plan for searches and in fact, it was even used in the consensual search of President Biden’s home,” he continued.
The FBI event decided to conduct the raid while Trump was not home to avoid any potential conflict.
