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EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump said he "will do whatever" he can "to help the country" after the FBI’s raid of his Mar-a-Lago home last week, telling Fox News Digital that the "temperature has to be brought down" while stressing that the American people are "not going to stand for another scam."
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on Monday morning, his first since the raid, Trump said he had his representatives reach out to the Justice Department to offer to help amid outrage over the FBI’s unprecedented raid on his private residence last week, in which agents seized classified records, including some marked as top secret. Trump is disputing the classification of those records, saying the records have been declassified.
"The country is in a very dangerous position. 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 said.
FBI SEIZES PRIVILEGED TRUMP RECORDS DURING RAID; DOJ OPPOSES REQUEST FOR INDEPENDENT REVIEW: SOURCES
"If there is anything we can do to help, I, and my people, would certainly be willing to do that," Trump said.
"There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country — at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times," Trump said.
Donald Trump leaves New York City after the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago resort. (Felipe Ramales: Fox News Digital)
Trump told Fox News that his team "has not heard yet" from the Justice Department on whether they will accept his offer for help.
"I think they would want the same thing — I’ve never seen anything like this," Trump said. "It is a very dangerous time for our country."
He added: "I will do whatever I can to help the country."
Trump, reflecting on the "years of fake witch hunts and phony Russia, Russia, Russia schemes and scams," said that "nothing happens to those people who perpetuate that — nothing happens with them."
"And then they break into a president’s house — a sneak attack where it was totally — no one ever thought a thing like this would happen," Trump said.
Trump told Fox News that FBI agents "break in and take whatever they want to take."
Trump said FBI agents told his team on the Mar-a-Lago premises to "turn off the camera" and said "no one can go through the rooms."
"They could take anything they want, and put anything they want in," Trump said of the FBI agents. "My people were asked to stand outside."
Trump went on to suggest that the FBI "could have planted anything they wanted" during the raid.
Former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. (Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"People are so angry at what is taking place," Trump said. "Whatever we can do to help — because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen."
He added: "The people of this country are not going to stand for another scam."
Following the FBI’s execution of the search warrant at Trump’s home, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a bulletin to law enforcement agencies warning of increased threats.
FBI BULLETIN WARNS OF 'DIRTY BOMB' THREAT, INCREASING CALLS FOR 'CIVIL WAR' AFTER RAID OF MAR-A-LAGO
In the days since the warrant was executed, the FBI and DHS have seen an increase in "violent threats" against law enforcement, judiciary and government personnel, including a particular threat to "place a so-called Dirty Bomb in front of FBI headquarters," according to the bulletin.
"General calls" for "civil war" and "armed rebellion" have also increased in recent days on social media.
Several of the threats are specific, according to the bulletin, which states that "the FBI and DHS have identified multiple articulated threats and calls for the targeted killing of judicial law enforcement and government officials associated with the Palm Beach search, including the Federal judge who approved the Palm Beach search warrant."
The threat warning comes after U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart unsealed the FBI’s search warrant and property receipt from the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago. Reinhart signed the warrant on Aug. 5, giving the FBI authority to conduct its search.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump are shown outside Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
According to the property receipt, reviewed before its release by Fox News Digital, FBI agents took approximately 20 boxes of items from the premises, including one set of documents marked as "Various classified/TS/SCI documents," which refers to top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
Records covered by that government classification level could potentially include human intelligence and information that, if disclosed, could jeopardize relations between the United States and other nations, as well as the lives of intelligence operatives abroad. However, the classification also encompasses national security information related to the daily operations of the president of the United States.
The property receipt also shows that FBI agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents and three sets of confidential documents.
FBI SEIZED CLASSIFIED RECORDS FROM MAR-A-LAGO DURING SEARCH OF TRUMP RESIDENCE
The property receipt does not reveal any details about any of those records.
The list also includes a "leatherbound box of documents," binders of photos, handwritten notes, miscellaneous documents, miscellaneous top secret documents, miscellaneous confidential documents and other records.
The government conducted the search in response to what it believes to be a violation of federal laws: 18 USC 793 — Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information; 18 USC 2071 — Concealment, removal or mutilation; and 18 USC 1519 — Destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigations.
A police officer speaks with a woman outside former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home after FBI agents raided it on Aug. 8, 2022. (Reuters/Marco Bello)
The allegation of "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information" falls under the Espionage Act.
The former president and his team, though, are disputing the classification and say they believe the information and records to have been declassified.
Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital that the FBI also seized boxes containing records covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege during its raid.
Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Saturday that the former president’s team was informed that boxes labeled A-14, A-26, A-43, A-13, A-33, as well as a set of documents — all seen on the final page of the FBI’s property receipt — contained information covered by attorney-client privilege.
Attorney-client privilege refers to a legal privilege that keeps communications between an attorney and their client confidential.
Sources told Fox News Digital that some records could be covered by executive privilege, which gives the president of the United States and other officials within the executive branch the authority to withhold certain sensitive forms of advice and consultation between the president and senior advisers.
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It is unclear, at this point, if the records include communications between the former president and his private attorneys, White House counsel during the Trump administration, or a combination.
Sources told Fox News that, due to attorney-client privilege, Trump’s team asked the Justice Department for their position on whether they would support a third party, independent special master to review those records, but sources told Fox News that the DOJ notified Trump's team that they would oppose that request.
The Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment.
Meanwhile, sources close to Trump told Fox News that the former president will soon be making an announcement about a potential presidential run in 2024.
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