Chanel Rion –OAN Chief White House Correspondent
UPDATED 10:39 AM PT – Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Late Monday night, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell tried to accuse Trump of lying about the FBI seizing three of his passports.
O’Donnell’s “source” and her reporting was then directly contradicted by the FBI a few hours later. The FBI seemed to be in a publicity tailspin as Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich tweeted a screenshot of an email from FBI proving three of Trump’s passports, including his active diplomatic passport, had been seized.
The email was written by a member of the FBI’s National Security Division to the Trump team admitting that “agents seized three passports belonging to President Trump, two expired and one being his active diplomatic passport.” The email went on to say the passports would be returned and “available for pickup” 2pm Tuesday.
The Bureau maintained a defensive tone in the subsequent press statement as it tried to explain away how the seizure of a former president’s travel papers were a common practice:
“In executing search warrants, the FBI follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes.”
The FBI had been scrambling to respond to Trump’s Truth Social accusation Monday that his passports had been stolen.
‘Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!’
— Donald Trump via Truth Social
O’Donnell who had tried to contradict the Trump statement did not retract her reporting, instead framing it as simply an update. O’Donnell tweeted:
NEW: 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.
— Norah O’Donnell ?? (@NorahODonnell) August 15, 2022
Initial inventory of the FBI raid noted that the FBI confiscated 27 boxes including photographs and a handwritten note. No mention of passports had been included in the initial warrant.
The raid, which took place last week, took place over the course of nine hours and included such broad categories of search instructions the FBI was found raiding former First Lady Melania Trump’s personal closet.
Trump Attorney Christina Bobb tells OAN the raid was pure political theater. After months of cordial and friendly negotiation and cooperation with federal officials over presidential records, the FBI simply requested the documents be better secured with a lock. A lock, Bobb says, they then broke into themselves.
Adding further issues to the FBI’s framing that their raid was of “national security” concern – the documents in question have already been declassified by President Trump himself according to Trump’s attorneys.
Following last week’s raid, Eric Trump tells OAN Team Trump’s fundraising efforts have broken multiple records. Indeed, amidst questions as to whether Trump will carry the GOP mantle in 2024 amidst a strong push for a DeSantis ticket, the former president has seen his support polling soar to record levels:
According to a Morning Consult/Politico poll of 2,004 registered voters last week, three in five Republicans would vote for him again in 2024.
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