“The country is in a very dangerous position. There’s tremendous anger, like I’ve never seen before, about all the fraud, and this news, years of fraud and witch hunts, and now this,” Trump told Fox News Digital. The former president told the agency that he would “do everything he can” “to help the country,” adding that “the temperature must drop.” Trump’s supporters and his GOP allies reacted with outrage after the Mar-a-Lago probe by the FBI last week. Trump said Americans are “not going to support another fraud,” as the unsealed search warrant revealed he is being investigated for obstruction of justice and possible violations of the Espionage Act, among other offenses. The FBI discovered 11 sets of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence and private club. Some of the documents were marked as top secret, while some of the documents were for viewing only at a secure government facility. Trump claimed the documents were declassified. Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Trump said his aides had contacted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to ask if the former commander-in-chief could help, as supporters of the former president shared their outrage over the investigation. Federal agents faced threats of violence after the raid. A 42-year-old man was killed during a standoff with law enforcement when he attacked agents at the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio. In a joint news release, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI said that “on August 11, 2022, Ricky Shiffer, Jr., wearing a utility vest and armed with an AR-style rifle and a nail gun, attempted to forcefully enter the FBI field office in Cincinnati. When the uniformed officers responded to Schiffer’s attempt to break through a glass barrier, he fled.” “A pursuit ensued, and Schieffer engaged in a standoff with FBI and law enforcement officers after firing multiple shots at officers from the Ohio Highway Patrol (OSHP). After a prolonged standoff, OSHP, supported by FBI SWAT, attempted to arrest Shiffer, resulting in his death,” the release said. “If there’s anything we can do to help, me and my people, we’ll certainly be willing to do it,” Trump told Fox News. “There has never been a time where law enforcement was used to raid the home of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country, at a level never seen before, except in very dangerous times,” he added. In a statement, the FBI said it is “always concerned about violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, including the men and women of the FBI. We work closely with our law enforcement partners to assess and respond to such threats, which are reprehensible and dangerous. As always, we would like to remind the public that if they notice anything suspicious to report it to law enforcement immediately.” Trump said he has not heard from the Justice Department about its offer to help ease things. He added that there had been “years of bogus witch hunts and bogus schemes and deceptions by Russia, Russia, Russia.” “Nothing happens to these people who perpetuate this, nothing happens to them,” he said. “And then they break into a president’s house, a sneak attack where it was totally, no one ever thought anything like this would happen.” He claimed that the FBI “came in and take what they want to take” and that federal agents told his assistants at Mar-a-Lago to “turn off the camera” and that “nobody can go through the rooms.” The Independent previously reported that Trump and his family watched the raid on security cameras from New York. “They could take whatever they want and put whatever they want,” he claimed. “My people were asked to stand outside.” The agents “could have planted whatever they wanted,” Trump said. “People are so angry about what’s happening,” he said, adding that “the temperature needs to come down in the country. If it’s not, terrible things will happen.” DHS and the FBI warned of increased threat levels in their bulletin to law enforcement agents issued after the Mar-a-Lago raid. “The FBI and DHS have observed an increase in threats to federal law enforcement and, to a lesser extent, other law enforcement and government officials following the FBI’s recent execution of a search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida,” the release states. . “These threats mainly appear online and across multiple platforms, including social networking sites, web forums, video sharing platforms and image boards. The FBI and DHS would like to ensure that law enforcement, court and government personnel are aware of the range of threats and criminal and violent incidents.” “The FBI and DHS have seen an increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including threatening to plant a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI headquarters and issuing blanket calls for ‘civil war’ and “armed”. rebellion,” the agencies said. The memo says the threats are “specific to the identification of proposed targets, tactics or weapons.” “Since August 8, 2022, the FBI and DHS have identified multiple threats and calls for the targeted assassination of judicial, law enforcement, and government officials related to the Palm Beach investigation, including the federal judge who authorized the Palm Beach search warrant Beach”. the agencies said. “The FBI and DHS have also observed the personal identifying information of potential targets of violence, such as home addresses and identification of family members, being disseminated online as additional targets.” The bulletin states that “as a result of recent activities, we assess that its potential targets [domestic violent extremism] The violence that continues could involve law enforcement, judicial officials, people involved in conspiracy theories, and ideological opponents who challenge their worldview.” “Drivers that could escalate the threat environment include potential future law enforcement or legal actions against individuals related to the Palm Beach investigation, statements by public officials inciting violence, high-profile hits [domestic violent extremism] attacks that inspire copycats or the emergence of additional conspiracy theories,” the agencies added. “The threats we’ve seen so far underscore that [domestic violent extremists] may see the 2022 midterm elections as an additional flashpoint around which to escalate threats against perceived ideological opponents, including federal law enforcement personnel.” The warrant was signed by a US judge on August 5. The FBI removed about 20 boxes of materials from the private club, according to multiple media reports. At least one set of documents was marked “miscellaneous classified/TS/TEK documents”. TS stands for top secret and SCI for sensitive compartment information, which can only be stored and viewed in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). The top-secret documents may contain information that could endanger the lives of intelligence agencies and that could complicate relations between the US and other countries, Fox News noted. The classification also includes national security information about the president’s day-to-day work. The FBI’s proof of ownership revealed that federal agents discovered four sets of documents classified as top secret, three sets of secret files and three sets of documents classified as confidential. The receipt also contained a “leather-bound document box,” photographs, handwritten documents, and other records. The investigation was conducted in response to a possible violation of several federal laws, including those prohibiting the collection, transmission or loss of defense information, concealment, removal or mutilation, and the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations. Trump’s former national security adviser from 2018 to 2019, John Bolton, told The New York Times that the former president’s efforts to defend himself after the FBI investigation revealed his “desperation.” “When someone starts making up lies like this, it shows a real level of desperation,” Bolton said. Trump claimed he declassified documents retrieved by federal agents using his presidential powers, while his allies claimed he had a standing order to declassify records removed from the Oval Office. “I was never informed of any such order, procedure, policy when I came in,” Bolton told the paper. “If he said something like that, you’d have to memorize it, so people would know it existed,” he added. Bolton told The Times that secure areas for viewing classified documents had been set up at Trump’s residences in Florida and Bedminster, New Jersey, meaning the documents could remain confidential.
