FBI Used Standard ‘Deadly Force’ Rules For Trump And Biden Raids

ANALYSIS – I must admit I was initially taken aback by claims that the FBI authorized the use of “deadly force” during its raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.

This, while searching for classified documents allegedly retained illegally by Trump.

My first thought was that this was unnecessary and dangerous for a simple search warrant against a former president. It could potentially lead to a deadly shooting incident, even including the U.S. Secret Service agents protecting Trump.

But I didn't give it much more thought at the time.

Then, the claims ramped up as Trump and his supporters began to say that Joe Biden was actually trying to assassinate the ex-president. 

That's when I did a double take.

More specifically, Trump posted on Truth Social:

WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the ‘Icebox,' and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden's DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE, NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.

Later, Trump claimed in a campaign fundraising email with his signature that President Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out” during a 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate for classified documents.

The subject line of that emailed letter read: “They were authorized to shoot me!” and said of the Biden administration, “You know they're just itching to do the unthinkable … Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”

Some of Trump's allies then echoed the former president's claims on social media.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch Trump ally, went even further than Trump, posting on X that “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.”

Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, wrote in her own X post: “The sicko Biden FBI were ready to use deadly force during the Mar-a-Lago BS raid. That tells you everything you need to know about this criminal Biden admin.”

That's when we go into crazy territory.

As bad as I think Joe Biden and his merry band of raging leftists are, I think they would draw the line at trying to assassinate Trump.

And upon closer scrutiny, it appears that the FBI used boilerplate verbiage in their operations order for both the Mar-a-Lago raid, and the raid on Joe Biden's Delaware home.

One page of the FBI's “Operations Order” includes a standard “policy statement” on the use of deadly force, which says officers may resort to lethal force only when the subject of such force poses an “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury” to an officer or another person.

But as Fox News reported:

“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter,” the FBI told Fox News in a statement. “The standard deadly force policy statement included in the operations order for the search of the former president's residence was also included in the operations order for the search of the sitting president's residence in Delaware, as is standard practice for all FBI operations orders.”

Fox News continues: “According to the filing, the DOJ and FBI agents “planned to bring ‘Standard Issue Weapons,' ‘Ammo,' ‘Handcuffs,' and ‘medium and large sized bolt cutters,' but they were instructed to wear ‘unmarked polo or collared shirts' and to keep ‘law enforcement equipment concealed.'”

This, in an apparent attempt at downplaying the raid. FBI agents also specifically sought to avoid a confrontation with Trump, choosing a day when Trump would not be at the property while giving the Secret Service a formal heads-up.

So, while a raid by armed federal agents on private property, especially one that has numerous guests staying there or visiting, creates a heightened danger of a shooting, it does seem that the FBI tried to minimize this from happening.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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