Trump Critics Demand People Stop Using This Word To Describe FBI Search Of Mar-a-Lago

Donald Trump’s critics are demanding that people stop referring to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) search of his home in Mar-a-Lago as a “raid.”

The FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence Monday, and many in the media have speculated that the search was related to an FBI investigation of his possible mishandling of White House documents, some of which ended up in the Florida residence. Trump described the search as a raid in his Monday evening statement, but his critics are now insisting that the term shouldn’t be used since the federal agents entering his home had a warrant.

“We don’t know yet what crimes the FBI had sufficient evidence of to convince a federal judge there was probable cause to search Trump’s residence, but the execution of a search warrant isn’t a raid,” wrote Joyce Alene, former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. “It’s a judicially overseen process. Still unknown: the subject of the search.”

“It’s a ‘search,’ not a ‘raid,’” “PBS News Weekend” anchor Geoff Bennett wrote.

“A court-authorized search is not a raid,” Brookings Institute senior fellow Benjamin Wittes said.

“To be clear, a lawful execution of a search warrant is NOT A RAID. TFG is not a victim,” Democratic Georgia state Rep. Erick Allen wrote.

“The FBI search warrant has to undergo a lot of steps – including a federal judge – to be signed off on. So it’s not a “raid” or “siege” like Trump implies,” journalist Stephen Fowler said.

“This was not a raid,” political commentator David Weissman wrote. “Merrick Garland had a legal search warrant to search Mar A Lago. No one is above the law.”