Former President Donald Trump is fighting back against the August 2022 raid of his Mar-A-Lago estate, with a notice to the Justice Department that he plans to sue.
“What President Trump is doing here is not just standing up for himself – he is standing up for all Americans who believe in the rule of law and believe that you should hold the government accountable when it wrongs you,” Trump attorney Daniel Epstein said, according to Fox News.
Trump is suing for $100 million according to a notice of intent to sue. The notice gives the Justice Department 180 days to respond before the case goes to a U.S. District Court in Florida.
“You have clear evidence that the FBI failed to follow protocols, and the failure to follow protocols shows that there was an improper purpose,” Epstein said,
“If the government is able to say, well, we don’t like someone, we can raid their home, we can violate their privacy, we can breach protocols when we decide to prosecute them, we can use the process to advance our personal motive–not a motive of justice–if someone doesn’t stand against that in a very public way and seek to obtain and protect their rights, then the government will have a mandate to roughshod over every American,” he said.
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The classified documents case is “very accurate and precise election interference,” Epstein said, adding, “The entire special counsel investigation was about interfering with his ability to get elected.”
The filing against the Justice Department said the “tortious acts against the president are rooted in intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process resulting from the August 8, 2022, raid of his and his family’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach Florida.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray did not reflect sound “social, economic, and political policy” but instead, were in “clear dereliction of constitutional principles, inconsistent standards ” and had a “clear intent to engage in political persecution – not to advance good law enforcement practices,” the filing said.
The filing said Wray and Garland were out for political blood and not seeking to uphold the law.
Will Trump prevail in this lawsuit?
“Garland and Wray 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,” the filing said.
“But notwithstanding the fact that the raid should have never occurred, Garland and Wray should have ensured their agents sought consent from President Trump, notified his lawyers, and sought cooperation,” the filing said.
“Garland and Wray decided to stray from established protocol to injure President Trump,” the filing said.
The Justice Department and the office of special prosecutor Jack Smith “brought a lawless criminal indictment” against Trump, the filing wrote, noting a recent Supreme Court ruling granting presidents immunity in their official actions.
NEW – Trump to sue DOJ for $100M in damages following the 2022 FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.
In a legal memo obtained by @NewsNation, Trump’s legal team claims “tortious conduct by the United States against President Trump” saying the federal effort was “political persecution” and… pic.twitter.com/ig3sVPIU9M
— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_) August 12, 2024
“As such, given the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and Judge Cannon’s dismissal of the prosecution on grounds that the Special Counsel’s appointment violated the appointments clause and his office was funded through an improper appropriation, there was no constitutional basis for the search or the subsequent indictment,” the filing said.
The process used against Trump was “unconstitutional and aimed at politically persecuting the former President, which led to extensive legal costs and negative consequences for him,” the filing further argued.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon threw out the classified documents case, saying special prosecutor Jack Smith was not properly appointed, according to Reuters.
The Justice Department is appealing that decision.
