Donald Trump Suggests FBI Agents 'Planting' Evidence at Mar-a-Lago

Former President Donald Trump has suggested that the FBI could have been "planting" evidence at Mar-a-Lago during a raid that the agency carried out on Monday.

Trump took to his social media site Truth Social early on Wednesday and criticized the search of his Florida residence, where FBI agents reportedly seized a dozen boxes as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents.

"The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago," Trump wrote.

"Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting.' Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out? Obama and Clinton were never 'raided,' despite big disputes!"

When contacted by Newsweek on Wednesday, the FBI declined to comment.

FBI agents carried out the raid of the former president's Palm Beach home on Monday after a warrant was approved by Florida federal magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart.

The search came as part of an investigation into whether Trump illegally removed or destroyed classified White House documents after he left office in January 2021.

Trump and his allies in the Republican Party responded to the raid with outrage, with some suggesting the Department of Justice had been politicized by President Joe Biden's administration.

The former president posted on Truth Social on Tuesday and called the raid "an unprecedented infringement of the rights of every American citizen."

"Scam after Scam, year after year, it is all the Radical Left Democrats really know, it is their lifeblood - they have no shame. Our Country is paying a very big price!!!" Trump added.

Two attorneys for Trump, Christina Bobb and Alina Habba, both suggested in separate TV appearances on Tuesday that the FBI may have planted evidence.

Bobb told Real America's Voice: "At this point, I don't necessarily think that they would even go to the extent of trying to plant information, I think they just make stuff up and come up with whatever they want and that's the way that they will have to proceed in order to actually try to indict the president because they don't have anything."

Habba told Fox News she was "concerned that they may have planted something. You know, at this point, who knows? I don't trust the government and that's a very frightening thing as an American."

Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close ally of the former president, shared Trump's Truth Social post on Twitter on Wednesday and wrote: "I think there is an extremely high probability that the FBI planted 'evidence' against President Trump."

"Otherwise WHY would they NOT allow his attorneys or anyone watch them while they conducted their unprecedented raid?" Greene said. "They know the consequences of an empty handed power move."

Trump is in New York on Wednesday to testify in a separate investigation being conducted by the state's attorney general, Letitia James, into his family business and its finances.

He will give testimony under oath as part of the investigation, which is probing allegations that the Trump Organization may have misstated the value of certain assets and properties in order to obtain loans and other financial benefits.

"In New York City tonight. Seeing racist N.Y.S. Attorney General tomorrow, for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides. Banana Republic."

Update 08/10/22 10:10 a.m. E.T.: This article was updated to include more information and a response from the FBI.