The GOP presidential nominee’s lawyers alleged illegal conduct by the United States against the former president over the FBI search.
Former President Donald Trump has submitted a memo detailing plans to sue the Department of Justice (DOJ) for $100 million in damages over the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago property in 2022, claiming it was conducted in an illegal manner.
It alleges that the government violated the former president’s rights during the August 2022 search of his property that resulted in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against Trump, accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents.
“Operational level decisions … made by Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray” were “were inconsistent with protocols requiring the consent of an investigative target, disclosure to that individual’s attorneys, and the use of the local U.S. Attorney’s Office,” according to the memo, obtained by The Epoch Times on Monday.
Actions carried out by Garland and Wray, the memo said, “were not discretionary but required as a matter of procedure and under the Constitution” and added they “should have never approved a raid and subsequent indictment of President Trump because the well-established protocol with former U.S. presidents is to use non-enforcement means to obtain records of the United States.”
Trump will seek $100 million in damages for the alleged damages that resulted from the Mar-a-Lago search as well as $15 million legal costs that he subsequently paid to defend himself, according to the notice.
Neither Wray, Garland, the FBI, or the DOJ have issued public comments on the memo as of Monday afternoon. A spokesperson for the DOJ declined to comment on the memo to The Epoch Times
Daniel Epstein, Trump’s attorney, filed the notice with the DOJ on Monday, giving the agency 180 days to respond and provide a resolution. If there is none, Trump will file a lawsuit or take other legal action in a the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, it said.
In a statement to The Epoch Times Monday, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the planned lawsuit against the agency means the former president “is continuing to fight against” what he termed as election interference during the 2024 campaign.
After the 2022 FBI search, Garland named Smith as a special counsel to investigate the classified documents case and also a separate case that alleges he tried to unlawfully overturn the 2020 election. In 2023, Smith indicted Trump on dozens of felony counts including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and making false statements.
Trump and two codefendants, valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago manager Carlos de Oliveira, pleaded not guilty in the case.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case against Trump, saying that Smith was unlawfully appointed and funded by the DOJ. The judge argued that Smith should have been appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“The Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Cannon wrote in her 93-page order.
Smith and the DOJ have filed a notice of appeal on July 17 against her decision. With the appeal, the case now heads to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
“Look as you well know, I picked this room for this interview,” Garland said in response to a question about her ruling. “This is my favorite room in the Justice Department. It’s a law library. For more than 20 years I was a federal judge. Do I look like somebody who would make that basic mistake about the law? I don’t think so.”
Smith was appointed under the same process that was followed when special prosecutors John Durham and Robert Mueller were appointed under the Trump administration, Garland said.
Trump still faces two other cases, with one in Fulton County, Georgia, and the other Washington. Earlier this year, he was convicted by a Manhattan jury on separate charges of falsifying business records and faces a Sept. 18 sentencing date. He pleaded not guilty to those charges, too.
