Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday rebuffed the former president Donald Trump‘s Biden administration has a claim He authorized the FBI for using deadly force against him during a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate confidential documents.
“This claim is false and extremely dangerous,” Garland said during a press conference.
His comments were in response to Trump writing on Truth Social this week that he had been shown “Crooked Joe Biden’s reports showing the DOJ authorized the use of LETHAL (lethal) force in the illegal and unconstitutional raids on Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.” .”
The Trump campaign made a similar claim in a fundraising email, claiming “Joe Biden was locked in and ready to take me out.”
Trump was in New Jersey when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago.
Trump appeared to be referring to when making the claims newly opened court documents 2022 is related to the search.
Garland said Thursday that the document in question deals with standard policy.
“The document cited in the lawsuit is the Department of Justice’s standard policy limiting the use of force. As the FBI recommends, this is part of the standard operating plan for searches. And in fact, it has even been used Consensus search of President Biden’s home“, Garland said.
A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Garland’s comments are not the first time the Justice Department has pushed back on its characterization of Trump.
In a rare statement late Tuesday night, the FBI said it was “following standard protocol in this search, as we do for all search warrants,” and that no further steps had been taken for Mar-a-Lago.
According to the policy of the Ministry of Justice, law enforcement officers are permitted to use force only when there are no other safe alternatives. The policy states that deadly force is authorized only “when necessary, that is, when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he intentionally withheld national defense information about classified documents discovered at his Florida property after he left office and that he ordered a Mar-a-Lago employee to delete the property’s security video. The trial was adjourned indefinitely.