Umamah Bakharia

Republican leaders are backing former US president Donald Trump after more than 30 FBI agents were granted a federal magistrate from West Palm Beach to raid his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

The search warrant granted to the FBI relates to official records and the ongoing investigation into whether Trump violated the Presidential Records Act.

This is the latest legal probe into Trump’s presidential term as he is weighing another White House run.

Trump has denounced the FBI raid as a “weaponisation of the Justice System” by “Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want him to run for President in 2024.”

Meanwhile, White House, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden did not have any advance notice about the raid and respected the independence of the Justice Department.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, leads, declined to provide a reason for the raid.