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Former president Donald Trump’s lawyers have filed an administrative tort case notice to sue the Department of Justice for $100 million and punitive damages over the FBI’s 2022 raid of his Mar-A-Lago estate following last year’s congressional testimony about the raid, the recent dismissal of the classified document case against Trump, and a Supreme Court concurring decision that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment violates the U.S. Constitution.
Trump’s defense bills have cost nearly $15 million since the raid morphed into Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Since then, Smith’s appointment has been judicially ruled unconstitutional and a FBI agent has testified that protocols were not followed for the raid itself.
Trump was indicted on 40 charges last year of willfully retaining classified documents and obstruction of justice. Of those charges against Trump, 31 were filed under the espionage act for allegedly possessing military secrets. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Trump’s attorney Daniel Epstein wrote in the filing “tortious acts against the president are rooted in intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process resulting from the August 8, 2022 raid.”
He accuses Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray of having engaged in “malicious political prosecution aimed at affecting an electoral outcome to prevent President Trump from being re-elected.”
“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,” Epstein wrote."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."
"Garland and Wray decided to stray from established protocol to injure President Trump,” Epstein added.
He further argues that the raid violated Florida privacy law.
“The FBI’s demonstrated activity was inconsistent with protocols used in routine searches of an investigative target’s premises,” Epstein alleges, adding that Trump “had a clear expectation of privacy at Mar-a-Lago. Worse, the FBI’s conduct in the raid – where established protocol was violated – constitutes a severe and unacceptable intrusion that is highly offensive to a reasonable person.”
Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified-documents case against Trump, ruling that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed.
“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, 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 decision.
The U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause requires ambassadors, federal judges and prosecutors as well as U.S. Supreme Court Justices to be appointed by the president and confirmed by a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate.
The Justice Department is appealing Cannon’s ruling.
Cannon’s decision followed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Trump’s presidential immunity case that suggested Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional under the appointments clause. The high court ruled that Trump has presidential immunity for official acts, and pushed his January 6 case back to a lower court. Smith is prosecuting Trump in D.C. on charges related to his alleged involvement in the January 6 Capitol riot.
According to the House Judiciary website, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to officials in July 2023 because of FBI agent's testimony before his committee.
"House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) just sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland revealing new information related to the raid of former President Donald Trump’s residence and the Department of Justice’s reported indictment of President Donald Trump. This information was obtained from the Committee’s transcribed interview of Steven D’Antuono, the former Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Mr. D’Antuono described several abnormalities in the raid.
Epstein's tort notices makes note of the unconstitutional appointment and also points out that FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Washington Field Office, Steven D’Antuono, had testified to a congressional committee last year that the bureau “should have sought consent” from Trump to search Mar-a-Lago and not excluded his attorney from the execution of the warrant."
It also produces internal FBI communications that show rank-and-file agents believed there was not probable cause to undertake the search and that the bureau was being run by “democrat political hacks up top.”
“Neither President Obama, former Vice President Biden, President Clinton, nor President Carter were subject to a raid of their personal residences, as was President Trump,” Epstein wrote, citing instances when each former president had classified files in their personal possession.
The Justice Department has 180 days to respond to Epstein's notice and come to a resolution or else the case will proceed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida.
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