Lara Trump calls Biden a ‘LIAR’ for claiming he had no knowledge of the Mar-a-Lago raid

Donald Trump‘s daughter-in-law Lara Trump accused President Joe Biden of lying on Thursday morning after the commander-in-chief asserted he had ‘zero’ advance notice of the FBI‘s unannounced search of Mar-a-Lago.

‘I don’t think anyone believes Joe Biden,’ she said on Fox & Friends. ‘We know it’s a lie.’ 

She spoke just a few hours before the deadline for Biden’s Justice Department to submit a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant behind the raid.

The former president and his allies have been clamoring for the unredacted version of the affidavit to be released, claiming it would prove that the search was executed on political grounds. But federal prosecutors warned the document’s release could significantly hamper their ongoing investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.

It’s then going to be up to Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart to decide whether to release the affidavit with the Justice Department’s redactions or whether to put in his own.

But earlier on Thursday Lara Trump continued, ‘It’s ridiculous to assume that the current president  did not know about an FBI raid from his own Department of Justice on the last president – and a person that he may be running against in the upcoming 2024 election.’

At the White House a day before, the president said forcefully that he had no advance notice of the FBI‘s raid on Donald Trump’s Florida mansion – after a newly revealed document showed archival officials contacting White House lawyers about material that was earlier handed over by the ex-president.

‘I didn’t have any advanced notice. None. Zero. Not one single bit,’ Biden said, making a zero sign with his hand for emphasis.

Lara Trump blasted Biden’s statement as ‘outrageous’ on Thursday morning.

‘I don’t think anyone believes that. And, if you do believe that, then who is in charge at the White House?’ she questioned.

Like other members of Trump’s inner circle, she called for the affidavit to be released in its full form.

‘I think for the good of the future of America, we should get a fully transparent, unredacted version,’ she said. ‘I’m not confident that’s what we are going to get. I’m sure they are going to try to conceal as much as possible.’

Earlier this week, the Florida judge at the heart of the case reasserted his intent to make the affidavit public, while warning that what little information the government will leave unredacted could render it ‘meaningless.’

Still, he erred against releasing the full document, explaining in his Monday filing: ‘Given the public notoriety and controversy about this search, it is likely that even witnesses who are not expressly named in the Affidavit would be quickly and broadly identified over social media and other communication channels, which could lead to them being harassed and intimidated.’ 

Biden’s statement that he had no knowledge of the raid reflects what White House officials said earlier this month after the extraordinary raid, where FBI agents carted off 10 boxes of material, including some that the government says was at top classification levels.

The White House has repeatedly said Biden did not know in advance about the raid, which was authorized by Attorney General Merrick Garland, in advance. 

But it also follows a new paper trail that is revealing a fight over access to documents that Trump had earlier handed over, after keeping them at Mar-a-Lago for about a year.

The latest development, a letter by the acting head of the National Archives to Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran from May 2021, details the FBI’s push to review 15 boxes of material that Trump returned from Mar-a-Lago.

Trump was seeking to make a ‘protective assertion of executive privilege.’

Acting Archivist of the U.S. Debra Steidel Wall wrote that it was the incumbent president who could assert privilege – and also revealed communications with the White House counsel’s office over the matter.

‘The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel,’ she wrote.

That has prompted new questions about the extent of information White House lawyers had, if any, about the FBI’s investigation, which has expanded to include whether provisions of the Espionage Act governing handling and removal of documents.

The latest letter, put out by Trump-friendly reporter John Solomon, pointed to a White House role in matters about determining privilege. The archivist determined that it is the sitting president, not his predecessor, who can make the privilege determinations and rejected the request by Trump’s team.

Trump continued to push back on Wednesday, blasting out an email linking to a Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined: ‘The Trump Warrant Had No Legal Basis.’

Some of the material that agents gathered in the August 8 raid is ‘extraordinarily sensitive,’ the Washington Post reported, and could reveal secrets about U.S. intelligence gathering methods. A source called it ‘among the most sensitive secrets we hold.’

Steidel Wall’s May 10 letter states that the the first cache of material Trump finally gave back after months of negotiations contained 700 pages of documents and 100 classified documents.

It still isn’t clear how boxes of materials that had been in the White House got to Mar-a-Lago, the Florida club that Trump made his domicile during his presidency.

The president oversaw the process himself, ‘and did so with great secrecy, declining to show some items even to top aides,’ according to the Post.

‘The Justice Department conducts investigations independently, and we leave any law enforcement matters to them,’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said August 9, the day after the raid, saying Biden was not briefed on or aware of the raid.