House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday said the FBI sweep of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate shows that no one in the United States is above the law — not even a former president.
“We believe in the rule of law. That’s what our country is about,” Pelosi said in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show. “And no person is above the law. Not even the president of the United States. Not even a former president of the United States.”
Pelosi’s comments came hours after the news that the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s private club and residence in south Florida late Monday, enraging Trump and his Republican allies in Congress.
According to multiple reports, the raid was related to an investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents. In May, a federal grand jury began investigating whether Trump had mishandled top-secret documents, including taking 15 boxes of material to the Florida resort.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida is currently under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement posted to Truth Social, his social media website. “It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by the Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowed to launch an investigation into the Justice Department’s decision to raid Trump’s home — if Republicans take back control of the chamber in the upcoming midterm elections.
“When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department,” McCarthy said in a statement, adding: “Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
Asked about McCarthy’s promised probe, Pelosi said, “Whatever the leader is saying is probably idle,” because she believes Democrats will retain control of the House this fall.
Pelosi, who recently returned to Washington, D.C., after a controversial trip to Taiwan, said she did not know much about the FBI raid and learned about it from a news alert on her cellphone.
“It will be interesting to find out exactly what the warrant was,” she said, “but, again, we can only speculate.”
The New York Times and Washington Post reported Monday evening that the raid appeared to be centered on material Trump took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he left office.
