DOJ Seeks FBI Interviews Over Mar-a-Lago Search
DOJ Seeks FBI Interviews Over Mar-a-Lago Search
The News
Justice Department investigators have asked to interview law enforcement officials about the FBI's 2022 search of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, as part of a Florida-based inquiry aiming to establish that officials conspired against him, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
The requests were made in recent weeks and were for voluntary interviews, not subpoenas, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Newsmax reported that four sources described the requests.
The move widens an investigation that had appeared to focus mostly on the decade-old question of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Timeline
Russian interference in the presidential election, and the government's response to it, becomes the subject of an intelligence community assessment — the focus of much of the questioning known to have occurred in the current inquiry so far.
The FBI searches Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and seizes top secret documents. Trump decries the search as an invasion of privacy.
Trump is indicted on charges of unlawfully retaining classified documents and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.
The case is dismissed after Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon rules that special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the indictment, had been illegally appointed.
Prosecutor Joe diGenova is brought back to the Justice Department to oversee the conspiracy investigation.
Investigators seek voluntary interviews with law enforcement officials tied to the Mar-a-Lago search.
The AP reports the interview requests.
Reactions
diGenova declined to comment when contacted by the AP on Thursday. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to the AP's request for comment.
Trump has long maintained that law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against him over the last decade, drawing a straight line from the investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign to the later cases over his retention of classified documents and his efforts to undo the 2020 election.
Congressional Republicans have seized on accounts of tension between FBI officials and senior Justice Department leaders before the search to question whether there was adequate justification for it. That dispute, however, centered not on whether investigators had gathered enough evidence for a search, but on whether there was a less dramatic and intrusive way to recover the records.
What's Next
It is not clear when or if prosecutors might seek to bring charges, or on what theory. But investigating conduct that occurred in Florida might give the Justice Department the legal hook it needs to anchor a prosecution in that state.
The department has run the Florida investigation for months in hopes of proving wrongdoing by the officials who scrutinized Trump.
More
It was not immediately clear why investigators want to question FBI officials about the Mar-a-Lago search specifically. The search produced the classified documents case that collapsed in 2024 on the appointment question rather than on the evidence.
Colleges Condemn Students Mocking Kirk Assassination Anniversary
Charleston White Arrested Again on Florida Battery Charge
Sep 13, 2026
Border Patrol Rescues MS NOW Crew in Desert
Sep 13, 2026
Supreme Court Restores Missouri's Old House Map
Sep 13, 2026
Alaska Drops Felony Voter Charges Against Samoans
Sep 13, 2026
Trespasser Breaches Harris' Malibu Estate; No Arrest
Sep 12, 2026
Hegseth Pressed Downed Airmen Into 60 Minutes
Sep 12, 2026
Houthis Seize Mokha, Choking Saudi Oil Exports
Sep 12, 2026
Altman Rules Out OpenAI IPO This Year
Sep 12, 2026
Jury Acquits Lil Durk in Murder-for-Hire Case
Sep 12, 2026
Judge: Trump Broke Law Halving FEMA Staff
Sep 12, 2026
Maher Calls Democrats' Gaza Genocide Claim a Lie
Sep 12, 2026
Blizzard Revives StarCraft, Sends Diablo to Netflix
Sep 12, 2026
Trump's Queens Childhood Home Sells for $1.93M
Sep 12, 2026
Scientists Find New Virus in Tick Invading US
Sep 12, 2026
Britain Bans Settlement Imports; US States Threaten Payback
Sep 12, 2026
Prison Fire Kills 7 as Kurds Protest Killing
Sep 12, 2026
Kosovo Rallies for Ex-President Before Hague Verdict
Sep 12, 2026
Cruz Booed at GameDay Over College Sports Bill
Sep 12, 2026
Blast Hits Bulgarian Arms Plant Supplying Ukraine
Sep 12, 2026
Sep 13, 2026