Trump Says the FBI Seized His Passports in Raid

CLAY: We have got some breaking news. If you aren’t on TRUTH Social right now you should be on TRUTH Social, because President Trump is tweeting regularly. And I say “tweeting” — truthing regularly from the site. And, Buck, he sent out what information here recently?

BUCK: This is just — in the last half hour this broke. President Trump said, “Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!” That was just 27 minutes ago as I speak to you right now. Clay, seizing someone’s passport, it’s usually an indicator.

CLAY: First of all, this is a huge deal. It’s a strong indication that, first of all, you seize someone’s passport when you think they’re going to flee the country. Again, this is Trump himself putting that out. If that is true — and it is maybe the strongest evidence yet that he is going to be indicted, Buck. Right? I mean, again, President Trump putting on TRUTH Social that the government has seized his passports.

First of all, I don’t think Trump has traveled, you know, outside of the country very much in the year and a half that he has not been president, but usually your passport is seized after you’re charged to try to keep you from being able to leave the country. I don’t know, Buck, that I have heard of a passport being seized before someone is charged.

Maybe one of you out there is an expert. This is where we love to be able to rely on this audience. It’s 800-282-2882. As we get ready for the third hour of the program, if you do criminal law or if you have been involved in high-level criminal defense, have you ever heard of a passport being seized before someone is charged with a crime?

Now, it’s also to believe, to be fair, maybe his passport was in some way connected — I’m just trying to think of —
BUCK: I don’t think he’s keeping his passport in boxes under lock and key in the basement. That must have been from his office, right? No one keeps their passport in dusty — ’cause you need it.

CLAY: I get it. I’m just trying to think of how the passport could have been seized and not been intentionally seized. ‘Cause, Buck, I’ve just never heard of it happening. And I’ve done criminal law. So, again, for most people, the only time they would take your passport is if they think you’re going to flee the country.

BUCK: Right. They ask you to surrender your passport as a condition of bail is usually what you hear.

CLAY: Right. But that’s my point is usually that happens after you’ve been charged with a crime. I can’t remember a passport being seized prior to someone — and, now, maybe they could argue — again, this is ridiculous — but maybe they are arguing, hey, we want to see where the passport has been stamped as evidence of some sort of trip. Again, I’m just trying to —

BUCK: I’m just gonna go on the record now. If they suddenly find a secret trip to Moscow where Trump has handwritten “meeting with Pootie-Poot, had a good conversation,” no, no, no. Trump has already said, he’s like, I don’t even know what they’re putting in there. And for anyone who says, how could he raise such a conspiracy, my friends, we all know this and we need to remember this, they falsified information for FISA. They falsified information for Trump-Russia. This is a matter of public record, of court record. So why should we not believe that they’re capable of that now? Of course we should believe they’re capable of that now.

CLAY: Yeah. Look. And I think it’s why so many people don’t trust the FBI. This is — I mean, to me this is a blockbuster — blockbuster statement. And again, I’m just trying to work through it live on radio like many of you are trying to process it as well. What sort of evidence could the passport have if it’s being taken for an evidentiary basis as opposed to as a restrictive travel basis.

But I just can’t remember, Buck — can you? Can you ever remember a time when, again, we’ll take calls on this in the third hour — where previous, prior to any criminal charges being brought, that a passport was seized? I’m sure that there have been situations where there have been ongoing investigations and they haven’t charged yet but they’ve said, “Hey, we want your passport.” This is just pretty, pretty rare. And I can’t even conceptualize in my head this occurring without there being criminal charges brought.

BUCK: I mean, it’s funny ’cause we just had Kash on who’s a federal prosecutor who says he doesn’t think there’s gonna be charges brought. I’ve spoken to former attorneys general who say there will be charges brought. I mean, clearly this could go either way. If they back down, though, from the charges, it’s really gonna be viewed as an admission that this is effectively a political hit. So can they really get away with that before the midterms?