Biden denies having prior knowledge of FBI raid on Trump's Florida house; 'none, zero...'

In his recent statement, US President Joe Biden stated that he did not have any prior notice of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raid on Donald Trump's Florida house, which was conducted on August 8. President Biden's remarks came on Wednesday, August 24, days after the raid was conducted at Trump's house to retrieve the classified documents of the White House. "I didn’t have any advance notice of the raid. None, zero, not one single bit," Biden told Fox News. 

Biden's comments came a day after it was revealed by Trump's legal team that the White House counsel's office had asked the National Archives on April 11 to grant the FBI access to search the former President's Mar-a-Lago house in Florida. Although the White House had previously denied that Biden had been given a heads-up about the raid, the development has garnered intense scrutiny from Trump and his Republican allies. According to the search warrant that was made public on August 12, Trump is being investigated by the FBI for violations of three federal laws including the breach of the Espionage Act, the removal or destruction of official records and obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, in his court declaration regarding the documents that were seized from his Florida club, former US President Donald Trump seemed to acknowledge that he illegally retained official government records. Trump's attorneys argued in a motion filed on Monday, August 22, that the court ought to appoint a "special master" to separate and decide which documents the justice department can examine as evidence because of privilege issues, as per The Guardian. According to reports, the motion also appeared to acknowledge that Trump breached one of the laws about the illegal removal of government records that were included on the search warrant of the FBI.  

Possession of the govt's records by Trump was a 'potential crime': Ex-FBI officials

Earlier in January, the National Archives, which is in charge of gathering presidential material, recovered the items which sparked a months-long Justice Department investigation into whether Trump was unlawfully holding secret materials at his house in Florida. According to the Presidential Records Act, which was adopted in 1978, White House records must be preserved as the US government's property. Former FBI officials claimed that possession of the government's records by Trump was a "potential crime" which led to the raid at his house on August 8. 

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