WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Former President Donald Trump in his first interview since the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home called it a ‘scam’ and said the U.S. is ‘in a very dangerous position’.
Trump gave his first interview on the matter a week after FBI agents searched his residence and removed 11 sets of classified documents. He spoke shortly after a leaked bulletin indicated the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned law enforcement agencies of increased threats.
“The country is in a very dangerous position,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “There is tremendous anger, like I’ve never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one – years of scams and witch hunts, and now this.”
Trump added that “people are so angry at what is taking place”, before saying that his representatives contacted the Justice Department offering to help.
“Whatever we can do to help – because the temperature has to be brought down in the country,” Trump said. “If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.”
The ex-president then essentially referred to the raid last Monday as a “scam”.
“The people of this country are not going to stand for another scam,” Trump said.
Trump said his team “has not heard from” the Justice Department regarding their offer to assist. He then reiterated his offer to help.
“I think they would want the same thing – I’ve never seen anything like this. It is a very dangerous time for our country,” Trump said. “I will do whatever I can to help the country.”
In the bulletin published by CBS News on Sunday, the FBI and DHS said warnings included thugs threatening to plant a “so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI Headquarters” and extremists ‘issuing general calls for “civil war” and “armed rebellion”’.
“The FBI and DHS have observed an increase in threats to federal law enforcement and, to a lesser extent, other law enforcement and government officials following the FBI’s recent execution of a search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida,” states the bulletin.
“These threats are occurring primarily online and across multiple platforms, including social media sites, web forums, video sharing platforms, and image boards.”
Trump said that “if there is anything we can do to help, I, and my people, would certainly be willing to do that”.
However, he also reflected on “years of fake witch hunts and phony Russia, Russia, Russia schemes and scams”. Trump said that “nothing happens to those people who perpetuate that – nothing happens with them”.
The ex-president claimed that FBI agents told his team at Mar-a-Lago to “turn off the camera” and to “stand outside”. He said the FBI “could have planted anything they wanted” while executing the search warrant.
Unsealed on Friday afternoon, the warrant shows that the Justice Department is investigating Trump for potential espionage offenses and removing classified documents from the White House. Trump is disputing that the records were classified, saying that they were declassified.
“They break into a president’s house – a sneak attack where it was totally,” Trump said. “No one ever thought a thing like this would happen.”