JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Governor Mike Parson condemned Monday’s FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
In a statement Tuesday, the governor called the search of Mar-a-Lago a “hostile targeting” of the former president and said it damages the public’s trust in the justice system.
I share the concerns of many Missourians and Americans regarding yesterday’s search of President Trump’s home.
The unsupported and hostile targeting of a former President by the FBI and DOJ detaches them from their independent and nonpartisan law enforcement duty. Political motivation and gamesmanship destroy public trust in our justice system. Now is time for transparency.
Never have such actions been taken against a former President, and the White House’s denial of knowledge about such an unprecedented move is either a lie or complete failure of leadership. The DOJ must immediately answer for these actions.
Gov. Mike Parson
Approximately two dozen FBI agents and technicians served a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago resort at 9 a.m. Monday with the stated goal of looking for and reclaiming classified government documents. When he left the White House in January 2021, Trump took several boxes of undisclosed materials with him.
There were concerns at the time about whether said materials should have been removed, in violation of the 1978 Presidential Records Act. While in office, President Trump signed a law in January 2018 amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, making it a felony to remove or mishandle classified information.
The Associated Press reported that the National Archives and Records Administration said it had received from Mar-a-Lago 15 boxes of White House records earlier this year. Some of those records contained classified information. The National Archives reached out to the Justice Department to investigate if there were more classified records in the former president’s possession.
FBI agents removed a dozen boxes of materials from Mar-a-Lago, Christina Bobb, an attorney representing President Trump, said.
Trump was in the New York City area at the time of Monday’s raid. He broke the news of the raid himself through statements to the news media and through social media channels.