The FBI didn’t believe it had probable cause to raid President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in 2022 — but moved forward anyway under pressure from the Biden Justice Department, newly declassified emails reveal.
Internal communications reviewed by Fox News Digital show FBI officials raising repeated concerns in the months before the August 2022 search of Trump’s Palm Beach residence, warning the evidence was thin and largely uncorroborated.
“Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents,” an FBI assistant special agent in charge wrote to another FBI official, Anthony Riedlinger. “From the interviews, WFO has gathered information suggesting that there may be additional boxes (presumably of the same type as were sent back to NARA in January) at Mar-a-Lago.”
That same official flagged serious red flags about the warrant itself.
“WFO has been drafting a search warrant affidavit related to these potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information is single-source, has not been corroborated, and may be dated,” the official wrote. Still, the email added, “DOJ CES opines, however, that the SW’s meet the probable cause standard.”
The FBI suggested a less aggressive path.
“Even as we continue down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former president’s attorney … ought not to be discounted,” the official wrote.
“At a minimum,” the email continued, “even if the former president’s attorney is correct and the documents were all declassified (or believed to be declassified), it can be reasonably argued that the documents remain sensitive and should be properly secured until the matter of classification is sorted out.”
Weeks later, frustration inside the bureau intensified.
“We haven’t generated any new facts, but keep being given draft after draft after draft,” another FBI agent wrote.
“Absent a witness coming forward with recent information about classified on-site, at what point is it fair to table this?” the agent asked. “It is time-consuming for the team, and not productive if there are no new facts supporting PC (probable cause)?”
Another email was even more blunt.
The FBI’s Washington Field Office did “not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES) that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar-a-Lago.”
Despite the doubts — and the lack of new evidence — the raid went forward.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley shared explosive documents on X on Tuesday, saying, “Received shocking new docs 2day from DOJ & FBI showing FBI DID NOT BELIEVE IT HAD PROBABLE CAUSE to raid Pres Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home but Biden DOJ pushed for it anyway Based on the records Mar-a-Lago raid was a miscarriage of justice.”
Received shocking new docs 2day from DOJ & FBI showing FBI DID NOT BELIEVE IT HAD PROBABLE CAUSE to raid Pres Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home but Biden DOJ pushed for it anyway
Based on the records Mar-a-Lago raid was a miscarriage of justice
Read for urself: https://t.co/qbJNT0tcRE pic.twitter.com/ljWdjndhHE— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) December 16, 2025
Full report over at Fox News:
BREAKING: FBI doubted probable cause for Mar-a-Lago raid but pushed forward amid pressure from Biden DOJ, emails reveal https://t.co/KJhfDzsjzl
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 16, 2025
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