U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that he personally approved the Justice Department’s decision to seek out and execute a search warrant on the Florida home of former President Donald Trump, based upon an ongoing investigation in which investigators had obtained probable cause necessitating the raid.
In a brief, 3 1/2-minute statement at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington, DC, Garland made his first public remarks since the Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago, which the embattled former president publicly disclosed that evening — setting off a firestorm of verbal attacks by his closest supporters upon law enforcement.