Former United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the raid conducted by the FBI has generated “about $5 billion worth of free publicity” for his Mar-a-Lago residence.
The authorities found around 100 classified documents dating back to Trump’s tenure as president at the Florida residence. The raid was conducted after witnesses confirmed that the residence contained proof of “obstruction of justice”, the Department of Justice said in an affidavit.
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However, Trump dismissed all allegations brought against him and said that the FBI and other authorities are trying to attack him politically ahead of the US mid-term elections.
“Has anyone heard about the document hoax? Helicopters flying over Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said at a Hispanic Leadership Conference in Miami arranged by the America First Policy Institute.
“Well, they’ve given us about $5 billion worth of free publicity, I will say. People said, ‘That’s a nice house.’ If it weren’t so nice, they probably wouldn’t be doing it, because it gets ratings.”
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Trump had earlier accused the FBI of planting evidence against him at the Mar-a-Lago residence but his legal team denied to add it officially to their argument.
“Everyone knows we’ve done nothing wrong. They are targeting me because they want to silence me, silence you and silence our amazing MAGA movement. There’s never been a movement like this in the history of our country,” Trump said at the event.
The classified documents are currently being investigated by the court-appointed special master and following his approval, the DoJ will begin their thorough investigation into the materials.