Before Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed the contents of the search warrant that was executed at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club on August 8, the disgraced former president attempted to pass a threatening message along to the top law enforcement officer in the country.
Citing The New York Times, Business Insider reports:
Trump wanted Garland to know that he had been speaking with people around the country and that they were enraged by the FBI search.
“The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?” was the message Trump wanted to be conveyed to Garland, a person familiar with the exchange told the paper.
A person close to the former president reached out to a Justice Department official to give Garland the message, the paper reported. It is not clear if the message reached him.
Many who were asked about the message said it was a clear threat, intended to convey a warning to Garland that if he pressed further, the ex-president and his supporters might just stir up violence around the country in response.
Robert Maguire, a research director at the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, noted:
“Just a normal former president hinting to the current attorney general of the United States—who was about to make an announcement about the investigation into the former president—that he can fan the flames of violence, before asking ‘What can I do to reduce the heat?'”
On Thursday, Garland announced that he had personally approved the search warrant that resulted in over a dozen boxes of allegedly classified and top secret documents being taken into federal custody.
If it can be proven that Trump knew he wasn’t supposed to keep the materials in an unsecured location, he could be charged under the Espionage Act and sentenced to 10 years for every document he had in his possession.
