President Trump on Wednesday accused former Attorney General Merrick Garland of weaponizing the Justice Department to spy on first lady Melania Trump and the couple’s son Barron, who was a minor at the time.
“They were tracking my wife, my son,” Mr. Trump said during an Oval Office briefing, citing recently released files that show the Biden-era Justice Department and FBI were targeting his family.
Mr. Trump called it “weaponization of government.” He said, “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
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Mr. Trump also criticized former special counsel Jack Smith, saying Mr. Smith “lied before Congress” and “lied all over the place.”
He described Mr. Garland and others as “thugs” and “bad, sick people,” and said they were led by a president who “possibly didn’t know what was going on. I think he did.”
In the weeks leading up to the FBI’s unprecedented 2022 raid of President Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida, federal agents secretly spied on the movements of Mrs. Trump and her son.
SEE ALSO: Biden DOJ secretly monitored Melania, Barron Trump ahead of Mar-a-Lago raid
The revelation came in a trove of Biden-era documents that the White House released this week. The documents chronicled the FBI’s spying on Mr. Trump as the Biden Justice Department sought to prosecute him for his handling of classified documents.
Federal agents also secretly tracked phone calls to top Trump aide Susie Wiles, who is now White House chief of staff, while investigating Mr. Trump for taking classified material after leaving the White House in January 2021.
The spy campaign happened as Mr. Biden planned a reelection run and Mr. Trump, his top political opponent, was about to launch a third presidential campaign.
“Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple. Those responsible must be held accountable,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.
A May 24, 2022, memo sent within the FBI listed a checklist of items agents had to complete before executing the Aug. 8, 2022, raid on Mar-a-Lago.
• Susan Ferrechio contributed to this story.
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