OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
7:06 PM – Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Internal FBI emails declassified and released this week show that agents in the bureau’s Washington Field Office (WFO) repeatedly expressed doubts about establishing probable cause for a search warrant at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in the months leading up to the August 8, 2022, raid.
Despite these concerns, Justice Department officials under the Biden administration still pushed forward with the operation, according to the documents provided to Congress by Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
The emails, spanning from June to early August 2022, highlight tensions between FBI investigators and DOJ prosecutors over the evidentiary basis for raiding the Palm Beach, Florida, residence.
One key email states that the “WFO does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES [Counterintelligence and Export Control Section]), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar-a-Lago.”
The email notes that while DOJ officials opined that probable cause had been met — requesting a broad scope covering the residence, office, and storage areas — FBI personnel viewed the supporting information as “single source,” arguing it “has not been corroborated, and may be dated.”
FBI officials also warned that pursuing a raid could be “counterproductive” and suggested less intrusive alternatives, such as direct negotiations with Trump’s attorneys to voluntarily return any remaining documents.
One agent proposed informing Trump’s legal team that a search warrant was being prepared, in hopes of encouraging cooperation and avoiding confrontation. Nonetheless, these recommendations were ultimately rejected.
In another exchange, an FBI official referenced a DOJ prosecutor’s purported statement that he frankly “doesn’t give a damn” about the optics of raiding Trump’s home. Planning documents from August 4, 2022, emphasized executing the warrant in a “professional, low-key manner” while being “mindful of the optics.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who released the documents, described the raid as a “miscarriage of justice,” and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) echoed these sentiments.
Johnson declared that the emails confirm the complete and total weaponization of the Department of Justice under the Biden administration to target political opponents, with Trump being the primary example.
The 2022 raid stemmed from a National Archives and Records Administration referral alleging that Trump had improperly retained classified documents after leaving office. The search warrant, approved by a federal magistrate judge on August 5, 2022, authorized agents to seize classified information, national defense information, and government records.
The release of these emails comes amid ongoing congressional oversight of the prior administration’s Justice Department actions and ahead of a planned closed-door deposition by former Special Counsel Jack Smith before the House Judiciary Committee.
Critics of the raid have long argued it was politically motivated, and the newly declassified documents provide apparent evidence of internal FBI reservations about the legal threshold.
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