Former President Trump said on Monday his aides had contacted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to offer ‘everything we can do to help’, saying the ‘temperature needs to be lowered’ after a spike in threats against law enforcement following the FBI’s search of its Mar-a-Lago estate.
‘Anything we can do to help – because the temperature needs to be lowered in the country’, Trump told Fox News. “If you don’t, terrible things will happen.”
Along with talking about bringing the temperature down, however, Trump repeated the attacks on the FBI over the search for classified documents that took place at his Florida estate last week.
Trump defended his supporters’ attacks in the interview, saying they ‘wouldn’t put up with another scam’ and describing the FBI’s earlier investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as a ‘witch hunt’ .
“People are so angry about what’s going on,” he said.
The FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago a week ago as part of its investigation into whether Trump violated the Espionage Act and other federal laws. Officers seized 11 sets of classified documents from the estate, although Trump claimed to have declassified the material.
The research has sparked waves of FBI and DOJ criticism from Trump and his allies, who argue the probe is politically motivated. Some have called for defunding the agency.
A new intelligence bulletin reportedly warned of an increase in threats to federal law enforcement following the Mar-a-Lago raid, referring to an incident Thursday at the FBI’s Cincinnati field office in the during which a gunman attempted to enter the building and later died in a standoff with law enforcement.
The Hill has requested comment from the DOJ.
The New York Times reported over the weekend that someone close to Trump contacted a DOJ official to deliver a message from the former president on Thursday.
“The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat? said the message Trump wanted to convey to the attorney general, the Times reported.
Trump told Fox News he hasn’t yet received a response from the department regarding his offer to help, but added that he thinks “they would want the same thing.”
Yet the former president himself has been one of the most vocal critics of the FBI and DOJ since the raid, repeatedly denouncing the investigation as politically motivated and sometimes suggesting an unproven conspiracy that the FBI planted evidence to hurt him.
Trump, as late as Sunday night, called the research an “abuse of law enforcement” and a “sneak attack on democracy” on TruthSocial.
“There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the home of a former President of the United States, and there is enormous anger in the country – at a level never seen before, except during very perilous times,” Trump told Fox News.
His allies echoed that sentiment, but Trump’s DOJ offer comes after Democrats and some Republicans called on Trump to moderate his rhetoric amid the heightened threat level.
Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called Trump’s rhetoric “inflammatory” during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“I don’t want to put law enforcement in the bullseye of a potential threat,” McCaul said. “And he’s someone who has worked with law enforcement for most of my career.”
Although it declined to comment on the investigation itself, the White House pushed back against the idea that the DOJ makes decisions for political purposes.
“It’s not about politicizing anything,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“That’s not true at all,” she continued. “And I would remind our folks across the way that the director of the FBI was appointed by the president’s predecessor.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered remarks on Thursday announcing that he personally endorsed the search while similarly condemning the attacks on the DOJ and FBI.
“I will not remain silent when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said.
Update: 11:35 a.m.