When does a raid take place?
Wouldn’t you feel weird if strangers went through your room and checked your things? This is what happens in a raid. The government can search anyone’s house if think they are doing something wrong. This is what happened to Donald Trump, former President of the United States (US). On 8 August 2022, the FBI raided Trump’s home in Florida, USA.
Why did the FBI raid Donald Trump’s residence?
The FBI is investigating Donald Trump. They believe that Trump took some government documents from the White House. They raided his house (a resort called Mar-a-Lago) in search of some of those documents.
There is a law that says that all US presidents must hand in their work documents when their time as president is over. These important documents are stored in the National Archives (NA). They belong to the government and not to the president.
Many of these documents contain top-secret information about the country.
Why did they think Donald Trump took the documents?
In February 2022, the NA said that Donald Trump had moved 15 boxes of government papers from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. He was asked to return these documents to the NA. He did return them, but some papers were still missing. This is not the first time Trump has been blamed for mishandling official documents. The documents should have been returned to the NA. Instead, they were taken outside where they could have been damaged or stolen.
What did the FBI find at Mar-a-Lago?
Donald Trump’s lawyer stated that some papers were found and taken by the FBI during their search. The FBI has not disclosed whether these are the missing documents they were looking for.
What does this mean for Donald Trump?
If Donald Trump has wrongfully taken government documents with him, then he could be put in jail. The FBI did their job and has shown us that no one can break the rules (not even the former president!).
