Nicole Malliotakis, Brooklyn’s only Republican member of Congress, said Monday’s raid of former president Donald Trump’s Florida home by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was “politicized and weaponized.”
“Justice is politicized and weaponized in countries like the oppressive one my mother fled, we cannot and will not accept it in the United States of America,” Malliotakis tweeted on Aug. 9, referencing her mother’s Cuban heritage. “An FBI raid on a former president’s home is unprecedented in our nation’s history. The Department of Justice must be transparent and explain to the American people why they targeted President Trump in such a manner.”
Justice is politicized and weaponized in countries like the oppressive one my mother fled, we cannot and will not accept it in the United States of America. An FBI raid on a former president’s home is unprecedented in our nation’s history.
— Office of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (@RepMalliotakis) August 9, 2022
The congresswoman shared a similar sentiment on Twitter on Monday evening, sharing a post from from former White House Secretary Ari Fleischer that said the FBI “better have the goods” to justify the raid, “otherwise this search on a former President’s home is a disgrace.”
The FBI executed the raid at the former president’s Palm Beach abode, Mar-a-Lago, on the evening of Aug. 8 part of an ongoing investigation into whether Trump mishandled presidential documents — including classified information.
“These are dark times for our nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement on Monday. “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
Trump nominated the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, in 2017, and Politico later reported that the former president did not like Wray and had tried to oust him from his post.
The action has caused major controversy in the political realm as many conservatives decry the raid of a former president’s home.
Gerard Kassar, New York state’s conservative party chairman, shared Malliotakis’ contempt for the investigation.
“The FBI, with machine guns drawn, invaded the home of a former President of the United States. It better have a damn good reason,” Kassar said in a statement. “All Americans should be alarmed by this exorbitant use of force, and all Americans should be demanding answers from the Justice Department today.”
The chairman said the machine guns were an overuse of authority and not completely necessary in the Department of Justice’s investigation since the property is allegedly always guarded by Secret Service members.
“They’re talking about security relating to documents at a house that is guarded 24/7 by the United States Secret Service,” Kassar told Brooklyn Paper. “So to me it looks like a political stunt for the purpose of the Biden Administration to push back at President Trump’s likely announcement with a full charge. The belief that the documents, if they even exist, were unsecure doesn’t make sense when you have armed guards 24/7 at a particular property.”
Though many Democrats have kept their feelings about the raid to themselves, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan in the House, shared the news of the raid on Twitter with a simple message: “Good!”
Good! https://t.co/rcZEssfkeN
— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) August 8, 2022
Congressmember Hakeem Jeffries shared Nadler’s sentiments, posting “No one is above the law,” after the news broke on Aug. 8.
Former governor Andrew Cuomo took to Twitter Tuesday to demand the DOJ explain their reasoning for the raid, claiming that it could be “viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation & legitimacy of January 6 investigations.”
Malliotakis, who represents parts of southern Brooklyn and Staten Island, was one of 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania in 2021 and also voted against creating the a congressional committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection.
