By Steve Nicklas, 5-27-24
There’s a well-deserved knock on the FBI for being politicized. And there’s that knock by FBI agents on the front door of Mar-a-Lago during an unannounced raid two years ago, which echoed across the political world.
And it’s still echoing. It is made for a knock-knock riddle. Because if you don’t laugh about these unprecedented political antics, you’ll cry.
Here’s how it would go.
Knock Knock. “Who’s there?”
The FBI. “The FBI who?”
The FBI who was authorized to use “deadly force” during the raid of former president Donald Trump’s palatial residence in Palm Beach. The specifics of the egregious search warrant came out last week, from a Freedom of Information Act request.
Trump quickly chastised the actions. “Wow! I just came out of the Biden witch hunt trial in Manhattan and was shown reports that crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their illegal and unconstitutional raid of Mar-a-Lago, authorized the FBI to use deadly (lethal) force,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Attorney General Merrick Garland and Democrat minions are towing the government line about the warrant. They claim every search warrant contains the same boilerplate language about use of deadly force.
It’s standard language and protocol, in other words. However, what is standard about raiding a former president’s home? To retrieve paper documents, and not weapons or drugs or hostages like typical FBI work. With the Trump-hating national media in tow, in their pockets.
Why wasn’t the wording, or the operations plan, toned down for this unique search? For instance, removing the “deadly force” clause. After all, it’s ludicrous to think FBI agents would engage in gunfire with Secret Service agents at Mar-a-Lago, or with any of Trump’s associates. Maybe the FBI agents feared getting paper cuts from collecting the classified documents.
Speaking of our national media, it is not at the level of Russia’s Pravda, at least yet. It is often hard to tell the difference, however. Of course, the same media hacks are spinning the response to the specifics of the raid, like spiders with a web.
One CNN anchor blasted Republicans for raising alarm over the “deadly force” language. To the anchor’s regret, she was talking to one of Florida’s finest, U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds.
“This is not like any other raid that they would do,” Donalds said. “FBI agents who did that raid did not want to do it – they did not think it was necessary.
“And this is all politically motivated at the end,” Donalds said, “because Merrick Garland wanted that to happen – the scene of going into Mar-a-Lago.”
The CNN anchor alleged the search of Joe Biden’s residences for classified documents contained the same language. In fact, Biden holds many more classified documents than Trump, in more places.
“When they searched Joe Biden’s house, there weren’t all the networks from my recollection with helicopters flying over,” Donalds said. “They didn’t politicize it.”
Also coming out are reports of dissension and hostility within the FBI over the frightening raid. Explosive emails have been unveiled through FOIA, according to Bloomberg News.
In an email to the acting FBI ombudsman, an incredulous employee asked, “Did this really happen?”
“Am I dreaming?” the employee mused. “The FBI served a search warrant on a former president?”
But the disgruntled FBI employee wasn’t finished. “I’ve lost just about all faith in our leadership,” the worker said. “If (a president) took documents, give him a call and ask for them back.”
Unfortunately, the grieving employee probably doesn’t work for the FBI any longer. Either he or she resigned – or got terminated. The environment there has become that caustic, that politicized, according to many sources.
Wait. Is that another knock we hear?
Steve Nicklas is the managing partner of Nicklas Wealth Management in Fernandina Beach. He is also an award-winning columnist. His columns appear in weekly newspapers in Northeast Florida and in Southeast Georgia, and on his website at www.SteveNicklasMarketplace.com. He has published a book, “All About Money,” of his favorite columns from the past 20 years. The book is available on Amazon. He has also done financial reports for area radio stations and for National Public Radio in Jacksonville. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 904-753-0236.
