The FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, is "the deep state at its worst," Rep James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"This is terrible," Comer told "Prime News" with Jenn Pellegrino. "This is the deep state at its worst, and something's going to have to be done about it."
Thirty armed federal agents descended on Trump's home Aug. 8 with a federal search warrant seeking documents, some of which might have been protected under attorney-client privilege, that Trump took with him after leaving the White House in January 2021.
The warrant, approved by a federal magistrate, was referred to the Department of Justice by the National Archives, which collects presidential documents, according to the released affidavit.
"We're supposed to have oversight over the National Archives," Comer said. "No government bureaucracy should have the authority to be able to send in an FBI team to raid anyone, especially the former president.
"We are the United States."
Comer said he has yet to see the "just cause" for the raid and members of Congress were told to ask the archives what made them refer the matter to the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland, who said he personally signed off on the warrant.
"They come before our committee regularly," Comer said. "We have communication with them because the oversight committee has jurisdiction over the National Archives. We've requested this information and the only response they've given us is 'contact the Department of Justice,' so this isn't appropriate. We're supposed to have oversight over the national archives."
Comer warned, if the federal agencies can do this to a former president, they can do it to any citizen.
"If the FBI can go in and raid someone's home just because some government bureaucrat said there's some documents missing, that again may or may not be classified, then they can do that to anyone," he said. "This is about our freedom. This is about our privacy, and you know the government bureaucracies are growing under the Democrats' control. They're getting more money. They're getting more power. There's no oversight, and there's no accountability."
He said the only way to combat what is happening is by putting Republicans back in the majority during November's midterm elections.
"Just this week we've got Merrick Garland sending out a letter telling the FBI employees not to talk to members of Congress," he said. "This comes at the heels of him finding out that there are several whistleblowers who have come forward at the FBI to talk to the [House] Judiciary Committee, and to talk to the Oversight Committee, so [Garland's] trying to obstruct congressional oversight, and that's not what the checks and balances of our democracy is all about. We've got to have change, and hopefully that change will come in January with the Republican majority."
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