Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, one of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics, said Sunday that so far, the FBI’s search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home has been a “victory” for the former commander. -chief. During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” the two-term governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate said the investigation will bolster the former president’s standing among key supporters as he looks to launch a third presidential bid the next months. “There’s a lot more to come. I would say this week has really been a win for Donald Trump,” Hogan told co-host Jonathan Carl. “He seemed to be galvanizing his base and people were running to his defense and felt like he was being caught and martyred.” “But I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the story yet,” he added. Hogan said in a statement immediately after the Mar-a-Lago investigation that American citizens “deserve to know all the facts as soon as possible,” even though he is one of the president’s biggest critics. The lawmaker, for example, said he would have voted to convict the former president in the second impeachment trial for his role on January 6, 2021, had he been in the Senate. “I think no man is above the law, but everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” Hogan said Sunday. “So we just have to see where this research leads.” Last week’s release of the FBI’s search warrant and property list revealed that agents were seeking documents related to possible violations of the Espionage Act, which prohibits the unauthorized removal of defense-related information that could assist a foreign government. Trump is also being investigated for possible obstruction of justice. “I wasn’t one of those people who was just reacting, you know, just defending Donald Trump, but I understood that without anyone understanding what this was about, that it was and could lead to even more division and angry rhetoric from both sides,” Hogan said. “And so I was happy that they actually came out and unsealed the investigation documents.” The warrant was unsealed after the Justice Department pushed for its public release, after the former president and many of his allies immediately launched political attacks questioning the department’s integrity. Trump shot down the investigation and denied reports that he had classified documents related to nuclear weapons, calling it a “hoax.”
