Legal experts reacted with shock to new reporting from the Washington Post claiming that some FBI agents were "afraid" of executing a search warrant at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort to retrieve top-secret government documents.
According to the Post's report, FBI agents battled with Department of Justice prosecutors over how to investigate the former president's handling of classified material, as they feared becoming targets of the former president and his allies if they conducted a lawful search of his property.
Former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who himself was targeted by Trump for his work early in the FBI probe of the Trump campaign's multiple contacts with Russian agents, was stunned that agents would be intimidated by the former president.
"An astonishing article. In 20 years of working cases involving classified information, I never -- not once -- encountered prosecutors who wanted to get a search warrant and reluctant -- even refusing! -- agents," he remarked on Twitter. "The other way around, sure."
READ MORE: Federalist Society leader's 'lavish' lifestyle under scrutiny after $43 million dark money transfer
Strzok then said that this fear was the result of Trump and his henchmen "successfully chilled the FBI’s willingness to investigate anything related to Trump."
National security attorney Bradley Moss echoed Strzok's views of the reporting and said that it showed the FBI "treated Trump with kid gloves" after being "traumatized from the Trump era assaults on it."
Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa, meanwhile, said that the Post's reporting showed that "the FBI has a problem, and it’s coming from inside the house," given its reluctance to search Trump's property despite having ample evidence to justify a lawful warrant.
