Eric Trump leaned in on conspiracy theories in a rant against Special Counsel Jack Smith, one of his father Donald’s many perceived foes.
The second Trump son, 41, appeared on Fox News on Monday to publicize his new book. He recounted the feds showing up to search Mar-a-Lago for classified documents after his dad left office.
The president has publicly called for the Justice Department to go after his enemies since returning to office, while claiming that it is he who is the real victim of political weaponization.
The angry younger Trump, who is a top executive for the Trump Organization, shared how he got a call about the FBI showing up with a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago in 2022, and claimed that the agency planted evidence against his dad.
“I got a call. ’The FBI is at the front gates of Mar-a-Lago. They have a search warrant, sir.’ And I go, ‘Why would they have a search warrant? What are they trying to search at Mar-a-Lago?’” Eric raged.
“‘I don’t know, but they’re instantly demanding that you turn off every security camera.’ Obviously Mar-a-Lago is a commercial property, right?” he recounted of his conversation.
“’They’re demanding you turn off your security cameras right now!’ And then sure enough we find out that Jack Smith is planting manila folders on the office of my father, taking these you know, glamorous photoshoots where he has them all fanned out like a turkey,” Eric claimed.
In reality, the search of Mar-a-Lago was conducted in August 2022, after the U.S. government had repeatedly tried and failed to retrieve documents with Trump’s cooperation.
Another glaring problem with the younger Trump’s claim that Smith was “planting manila folders” is that the search warrant was executed in August. Smith was not appointed special counsel to oversee the investigation into the classified documents and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol until that November. He had to travel back to the U.S. from Europe, where he was serving as a chief prosecutor at The Hague, investigating war crimes, to do it.
The FBI removed classified documents Trump had stored at Mar-a-Lago not only in a storage room but also in a shower, office, bedroom, and a ballroom, according to the indictment.
Photos of the evidence showed stacks of boxes stacked up around a toilet in a bathroom under a chandelier. Other boxes were stacked up in a white and gold ballroom.
Members of the Trump family have long argued that the president was being targeted politically, and floated conspiracy theories to back their claims.
Eric Trump’s rant followed New York Attorney General Letitia James being charged with bank fraud after Trump publicly called for the Justice Department to take action.
James led a successful fraud case against the president and the Trump Organization, which received a judgment totaling more than $500 million before it was ultimately thrown out.
Eric Trump ranted that his family spent $400 million defending itself against “sham” investigations, and claimed those were no different than the search of Mar-a-Lago.
