On Monday, former President Doanld Trump claimed that the FBI “stole” his “passports” during the raid on his private residence last week.
Hours later, Norah O’Donnell of CBS News said that a DOJ official told her that Trump’s passports were NOT in their possession.
Some of the Trump’s biggest haters quickly pounced, claiming that he either lied or that his passports must have been rightfully seized.
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However, Trump’s spokesman Taylor Budovich later contradicted O’Donnell’s report when he shared an email that appears to admIt that the FBI DID seize three of his passorts when they raided the house.
Budovich shared a message from the National Security Division’s Jay Bratt saying that two expired passports and an active diplomatic one had indeed been taken.
According to Breitbart who noted that the passports were “not independently itemized on the FBI’s property receipt of the 28 inventory items federal agents seized.”
“The warrant, which Attorney General Merrick Garland says he approved and was signed by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, did not state that they could take Trump’s passport,” the report noted. “Typically, the government needs a separate court order to seize someone’s passport, even temporarily.”
According to Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, a DOJ official said the former president’s passports were not in their possession, one of which presumably would have been a diplomatic passport.
“According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports. Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home,” O’Donnell announced on Monday.
Shortly after Norah’s post, Taylor Budowich, the former president’s communications director, shared an email from Jay Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s national security division, confirming that three passports were seized in the raid and that they would be returned to the former president soon.
“We have learned that the filter agents seized three passports belonging to President Trump, two expired and one being his active diplomatic passport. We are returning them, and they will be ready for pick up at WFO at 2 PM today,” the email to Trump’s attorneys read.
Norah O’Donnell amended her initial statement in light of the new information
