Trump Claims FBI Raided Mar-a-Lago Looking for Clinton Emails

Former President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he believes the FBI and Department of Justice raided his Mar-a-Lago residence to look for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails.

During an interview with the Wendy Bell radio show, Trump spoke about the recent raid at his Florida residence and said, "I think they were looking for Hillary Clinton's emails."

Trump continued, "I think they thought, and who knows, boxes full of stuff...I think they thought...there was something to do with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. They were afraid that things were in there, part of their scam material because that's what they are, they're scammers."

The former president's comments come just a few days after the DOJ unsealed an image showing some of the documents that FBI agents recovered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. On August 8, FBI agents raided the Mar-a-Lago estate and a redacted version of the affidavit that supported the FBI's raid revealed that the former president was in possession of several classified documents.

"There is probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified NDI [National Defense Information] or that are Presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain at the PREMISES," the redacted affidavit said.

In the days following the raid, Trump and other Republican leaders have continued to rail against the FBI and the DOJ, with many saying that the search was politically motivated.

"Affidavit heavily redacted!!! Nothing mentioned on 'Nuclear,' a total public relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ, or our close working relationship regarding document turnover - WE GAVE THEM MUCH," Trump said in a post to his social media site, Truth Social, shortly after the affidavit was released.

During a separate interview with the John Fredericks Radio Show on Thursday, Trump spoke further about the raid and the documents that were seen in the photo released by the Justice Department.

"It's not like this was some sinister plot...They have pictures of guys standing outside. The boxes are literally outside. The sun is pouring down and they're waiting for a truck and then they have pictures putting them on a truck," Trump said. "There was nothing secret about it. It didn't have to be anything secret."

Despite Trump's comments about Clinton on Thursday, in 2019, the former Secretary of State was cleared of any wrongdoing following a long investigation into her handling of classified documents on a private email server.

"While the use of a private email system itself did not necessarily increase the likelihood of classified information being transmitted on unclassified systems, those incidents, which then resulted in the presence of classified information upon it, carried an increased risk of compromise or inadvertent disclosure," a report completed by the State Department said in 2019.

Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Trump for comment.