Baselessly claims FBI may have 'planted' evidence at Mar-a-Lago

Two days after the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search, Trump posted on Truth Social suggesting without any evidence that federal agents may have planted incriminating materials during the search. The post read: "The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and robbed. They wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting.' Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?" The baseless claim exemplified Trump's pattern of preemptively attacking law enforcement to delegitimize investigations. No evidence supported the allegation; FBI searches follow strict protocols and Trump's own lawyers were present at Mar-a-Lago during the search. The claim represented Trump's standard playbook: when facing legal accountability, accuse investigators of corruption.

"The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and robbed...Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?" — Truth Social post, August 10, 2022