On September 26, 2022, the FBI changed the total number of documents it reportedly seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
An additional 63 documents or photographs without classification labels seized by the FBI, per an updated inventory list.
According to the Bongino Report, “the revised inventory was submitted to the federal court in southern Florida.” This was done on orders from U District Judge Raymond Dearie. Bongino called attention to how Dearie was a Reagan appointee who is now part of this case as a special master. The special master functions as an independent third party tasked with settling disputes and other issues.
Dearie instructed a government official “with sufficient knowledge of the matter” to submit a declaration or affidavit saying whether the detailed property inventory published on September 2 “represents the full and accurate extent of the property seized from” Trump’s residence in August when FBI agents carried out a raid there.
A FBI supervisory special agent carried out the order. The agent’s name was redacted and based in Washington. This agent heads up a squad of intelligence analysts, special agents, and other FBI personnel who conduct counterintelligence and espionage investigations. This team ended up executing the warrant to raid Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
The previous inventory was carried out by the agent and personnel under the agent’s watch. However, the agent wanted to ensure the inventory was accurate. The agent told Dearie the following:
“I and FBI personnel working under my direction conducted an additional review and recount of the Seized materials in order to make this declaration.”
The agent stated that this entire process resulted in several “minor revisions.”
According to an Epoch Times analysis of the previous and current inventory list, the key differences included 63 non-classified documents or photographs being tacked on to the total the FBI claimed it confiscated. On top of that, the Bongino Report noted that the new list has two fewer magazines/newspapers/press articles and two fewer empty folders with ‘CLASSIFIED’ banners.”
Several of the boxes FBI seized from Trump’s residence we believed to have contained more documents while others were reported to have fewer.
If this revision turns out to be accurate, the FBI confiscated over 11,200 non-classified items from Mar-a-Lago.
The agent claimed that the FBI team was unaware of any documents or other materials confiscated from Trump’s residence that are not featured in the updated inventory. The only exceptions were the materials the government’s filter team seized.
The agent said he or she declared, under the penalty of perjury, that they were “not aware of” any documents or other materials seized from Trump’s home that are not listed in the updated inventory, with the exception of materials taken by the government’s filter team.
The squad was mostly focused on identifying and separating materials they believe could fall in the scope of attorney-client privilege.
All things considered, the FBI has too much power. A part of any serious nationalist platform would be to significantly weaken the agency, and in the long-term, abolish it. If the GOP fails to do this at the federal level, Republican-controlled states must push the envelope and expel FBI agents and facilities from their respective jurisdictions.
The FBI can no longer be allowed to function as just another government agency. It’s time to put it on a crash diet.