Attorney General Merrick Garland admonished Donald Trump on Thursday for asserting that the Department of Justice was authorized to use deadly force against the Republican presumptive nominee, saying the allegation is "false" and "extremely dangerous."
Garland made the comments during a press conference he was holding to announce the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster owner Live Nation. He was asked about Trump's social media posts and fundraising email that seized on a court filing unsealed Tuesday that showed how federal agents prepared for and executed the raid on Mar-a-Lago in the classified documents case, including "deadly force" within the mission's guidelines.
The FBI and Garland said it's standard operating procedure, just as it was for the search at President Joe Biden's home for the same thing months later. However, Trump said federal agents were "locked & loaded ready to take me out," according to USA Today.
"You know they're just itching to do the unthinkable" and that "Biden's DOJ was authorized to shoot me," Trump said in the fundraising pitch. Allies including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Sen. Ted Cruz have joined a chorus of lawmakers chiding law enforcement for an over-the-top authorization that could easily have spiraled out of control and resulted in mayhem.
"When you have a search warrant, it’s standard that you authorize the use of force, and that makes sense," Cruz said on "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on Wednesday. "If you’re executing a search warrant on a drug dealer or a criminal, you know it can get violent and the agents need to defend themselves. This was not a run of the mill search warrant. This was the former president of the United States."
Onetime Trump Attorney General Matt Whitaker, also on Newsmax on Wednesday, called the FBI's position "outrageous."
The FBI has tried to walk this back since this came out, but I was with President Trump yesterday in Manhattan at the courtroom," Whitaker said on Newsmax's "Newsline." "I was with him when he found out this information and the reaction, not only from Donald Trump, just sort of realizing the gravity of what happened, but also his Secret Service agents, who realized that somehow they were viewed as not co-equal federal law enforcement agents by the FBI.
"I think that's just completely inconsistent with how I've done cases as a prosecutor, and I just really think that the traditions of federal law enforcement would never allow that. So, the fact that they even considered it I think is a complete travesty."
Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022, when the search was executed.
"That allegation is false, and it is extremely dangerous," Garland said Thursday. "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 added.
"The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force," the FBI said in a statement Tuesday. "No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter."
The filing revealed that the FBI had a contingency plan to "engage with" Trump and his Secret Service detail in the event he showed up during the search at Mar-a-Lago.