Trump set to sue DOJ for $100m over Mar-a-Lago raid after classified documents case dismissed

Donald Trump is set to sue the US Department of Justice for $100m in damages over the 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate less than a month after his classified documents case was overturned, according to a memo from his lawyers.

The FBI’s search of his Palm Beach, Florida, resort on August 8, 2022, resulted in hundreds of pages of classified documents retained from when he was president being removed from the property.

Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted the former president on 37 felony counts in June last year. Trump pleaded not guilty on all charges.

Now, Trump’s lawyers have argued that the DOJ’s raid was conducted with “clear intent to engage in political persecution,” according to memo first obtained by Fox News.

The filing condemns the alleged “tortious conduct by the United States against President Trump,” citing intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process from the raid.

Trump’s lawsuit accuses both US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who assigned Smith in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations and the eventual indictment, and FBI Director Christopher Wray for running a “malicious prosecution” against him.

President Joe Biden, whom Garland reports to directly, has been accused by Trump numerous times of orchestrating an alleged political “witch-hunt”. The White House and DOJ have denied any accusations that the raid was politically motivated.

“Garland and Wray should have never approved a raid and subsequent indictment of President Trump because the well-established protocol with former U.S. presidents is to use non-enforcement means to obtain records of the United States,” Trump attorney Daniel Epstein, who filed the memo, wrote.

He added that Garland and Wray should have