Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmidt ripped the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s “two tiers of justice” Tuesday on Fox News after authorizing the use of “deadly force” for the 2022 raid of Mar-A-Lago.
Schmidt appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to discuss the recent release of a new court filing showing that the FBI’s mission guideline for the raid on Mar-A-Lago in August 2022 allowed the federal agency the “use of deadly force” if needed. Fox host Laura Ingraham questioned Schmidt on the sign-off of the guidelines, comparing it to the discovery of classified documents found within President Joe Biden’s garage. (RELATED: Trump Motions To Dismiss Classified Docs Case Based On ‘Unconstitutional’ Mar-A-Lago Raid, ‘Prosecutorial Misconduct’)
“I mean, Laura, if you ever needed any more evidence about the two tiers of justice you compare this authorization of deadly force of the former president versus essentially the kid gloves they put on for Joe Biden who had classified materials from his Senate days in a garage where Hunter Biden shares who is compromised by foreign governments,” Schmidt stated. “They treated these very differently. This is just sort of like the explanation of –”
“Well, it’s not just that. Senator, they gave a heads up to – the lawyer was allowed to go, the White House lawyer was allowed to go to the garage and check out the lay of the land first, right? Isn’t that how it went down? So it was – deadly force, okay. It’s really lawfare,” Ingraham jumped in.
“It’s crazy,” Schmidt noted
The private home of former President Donald Trump was raided in an attempt to find “classified information, [National Defense Information], and US Government records,” according to the court filing. While Trump was not in the home at the time, the filing states that authorities were told to not only conceal their “law enforcement equipment,” but also to come armed with “ammo,” “handcuffs” and “medium and large sized bolt cutters,” according to the New York Post.
“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force,” the federal agency responded in a statement, according to the outlet. “No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter.”
Reports that Biden held classified documents from his time as vice president within multiple non-secure locations surfaced in early 2023, with Republicans pressing Attorney General Merrick Garland on why the news was withheld until after the midterm elections. Classified documents were recovered by Biden’s lawyers from both his garage at his Delaware residence and the Penn Biden Center, handing them over to the Department of Justice.
As Trump has been charged by special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly mishandling classified documents, the probe led by special counsel Robert Hur stated that Biden would not be charged for his case.
