Republican Confronted Over Donald Trump FBI Claim

Florida Representative Bryon Donalds was pressed about the “conspiracy theory” pushed by Donald Trump and other Republicans that the FBI wanted to assassinate the former president during the search for classified documents in August 2022.

Donalds, among those cited as being Trump’s possible 2024 running mate, repeatedly dodged questions put to him by CNN‘s Abby Phillip on why he and other Republicans pushed a false claim that President Joe Biden approved the assassination of Trump during the search of his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump falsely claimed in a fundraising email that the wording of the search warrant, which said that agents were prepared to use “deadly force” if necessary, meant that Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out.”

The “deadly force” phrase is instead a standard line to include in federal search warrants while laying out the protocol for such an operation.

During Donalds’ appearance on CNN, the congressman was pressed on why he and other GOP figures tried to suggest something “that’s just not true” with regards to Biden authorizing an assassination attempt on Trump.

“That is false. Will you acknowledge that?” Phillip asked Donalds. In reply, he said: “I’m not sure what [Attorney General] Merrick Garland is trying to do these days because it is clear that the Department of Justice is being politicized against Donald Trump…that’s not extraordinary, that’s what’s happening right now.”

Phillip said what is “extraordinary” is that when “faced with really clear facts, very clear facts,” Donalds would not admit his previous remarks were not true.

Phillip went on to say that if the Republican Party “calls themselves a party of law” why would he insinuate that the wording of a search warrant “was some kind of attempt at former President Trump’s life?”

After Donalds again attempted to avoid the line of questioning, Phillip added: “When you tell your supporters, the former president’s supporters, that there was a government attempt on the former president’s life—and that is not true, that is a major insinuation—it deserves to be walked back.”

“I would argue right now if you look at the actions of [Special Counsel] Jack Smith and Merrick Garland, there is an attempt to incarcerate Donald Trump over foolishness because they cannot win a political election,” Donalds replied.

“And they have lost their minds collectively. And they have decided that whether it’s the documents case, or this foolish January 6 case, which has no true merit, or what’s happening here in Manhattan with Alvin Bragg, they have chosen to use the justice system for political purposes and interfere in elections.

“That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s a real situation we should be talking about talking about, not what’s written in that FBI document.”

Newsweek reached out to Donalds via email for comment.

The wording of the search warrant was unsealed in court documents this week in relation to Trump’s classified materials case.

“WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the ‘Icebox,’ 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 in a post on Truth Social.

“NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!”

Trump was not at his Florida home when the FBI conducted its search for classified documents on August 8, 2022.

In a statement, the FBI said that the wording of the warrant was standard and also included when agents searched Biden’s Delaware home for classified materials.

“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter,” the statement said.

“The standard deadly force policy statement included in the operations order for the search of the former president’s residence was also included in the operations order for the search of the sitting president’s residence in Delaware, as is standard practice for all FBI operations orders.”