Former President Donald Trump is preparing to sue the Department of Justice over the FBI's raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, claiming that it was "political persecution" and unlawful.
Trump faced 40 criminal counts, including 37 felony counts, related to his handling of classified documents after many were found during the 2022 search at his estate, with prosecutors accusing him of actively obstructing attempts by the government to retrieve those documents after he left office.
However, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case last month, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unlawful, a ruling that Smith is currently appealing.
A memo from the former president's legal team, which was obtained by Fox News correspondent Brooke Singman, shows that Trump now plans to argue in a lawsuit that the FBI raid had a "clear intent to engage in political persecution" and that the Justice Department has engaged in "tortious conduct" against Trump, claims which he says "are rooted in intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process."
Trump attorney David Epstein told Fox Business correspondent Lydia Hu in a statement: "What President Trump is doing here is not just standing up for himself — he is standing up for all Americans who believe in the rule of law and believe that you should hold the government accountable when it wrongs you."