Congressional Allies donald trump on Tuesday appeared to misinterpret FBI standard operating procedure over what they called an attempt by President Joe Biden’s administration to assassinate the former president during a 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate for classified documents.
Representative. Marjorie Taylor GreeneR-Ga., wrote on X that the Department of Justice and the FBI had plans to “assassinate” Trump “and gave the green light.”
Representative. Paulo GosarR-Ariz., posted in X that President Joe Biden “ordered the attack on Trump at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
The posts came shortly after Trump, who was not at Mar-a-Lago on the day of the FBI search, wrote on Truth Social that he was shown reports indicating “that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in its illegal and unconstitutional March raid -a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.
Trump, who has often accused Biden of using the justice system as a weapon against him, appeared to be referring to recently unsealed court files related to documents found at Mar-a-Lago after FBI search in 2022.
In a rare statement Tuesday night, the FBI said it followed standard procedure during the search of Trump’s property and that no further action was ordered.
“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 measures to be taken and there was no deviation from the norm in this matter,” the statement said.
According to Justice Ddepartment policy, law enforcement officers are only authorized to use force when no other safe alternatives appear to exist. The policy further says that deadly force is permitted only “when necessary, that is, when the officer has a reasonable belief that the object of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night, and spokespeople for Greene and Gosar did not elaborate on their posts.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he knowingly withheld national defense information in connection with classified documents that were discovered at his Florida estate after he left office and that he ordered a Mar-a-Lago employee to delete the video property security. The trial was postponed indefinitely.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
