The release of a picture of the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump's private residence at Mar-a-Lago has only exposed the political nature of this attack on potential opponent, according to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Newsmax.
"That whole little release of a picture, talk about unprofessional, talk about improper as far as any procedure, it's totally inappropriate," Manafort told Saturday's "Wake Up America." It doesn't mean anything.
"And the FBI and the DOJ is not supposed to be leaking this kind of stuff in an investigation, especially if it's a criminal investigation — if that's what they're doing.
"But they did it. Why did they do it? Because this is all a show. It's meant to just create an impression in the American people's minds, and it's meant to distract attention from the upcoming elections and the Biden administration's record, which is going to be a terrible record to run on in the fall."
Manafort, author of the recently released memoir "Political Prisoner: Persecuted, Prosecuted, but Not Silenced," denounced the FBI and seeking of presidential documents merely a "political issue" — and one that will not keep Trump from running again in 2024.
"They don't want him to run again," Manafort told co-hosts Carl Higbie and Amanda Brilhante. "They want to ban him from an election. None of that's going to happen if he decides to run.
"There's no crime committed here."
Manafort also denounced President Joe Biden's "Civil War speech" that attacked Republicans and effectively "declared war in America" against Trump supporters.
"The pattern is they're afraid of Donald Trump," Manafort continued. "They're trying to deflect the American people's attention from the issues of this election coming in November."
The Justice Department authorizing an FBI raid on a former president "is like asking a burglar to go into your house to make sure everything is OK," Manafort said.
"You know, it just doesn't work," he concluded. "It's meant to be a political attempt to try and discourage and embarrass a potential opponent. But more important, I really think, to deflect from the issues of the Biden administration, which are going to be the base by which people make their judgments in November and Congress is going to change."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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