FBI records debunk Trump's claim he sent in agents to stop DeSantis from losing 2018 election
In November last year, former President Donald Trump began ramping up his attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in anticipation of the latter running a presidential campaign to challenge him for the nomination in 2024. And at the time he made an eyebrow-raising claim: that he sent in FBI agents to stop the vote count in Florida, preventing DeSantis from losing the election.
Trump specifically claimed on his Truth Social platform that he sent "the FBI and U.S. Attorneys" into Broward County, one of the largest Democratic strongholds in the state, and “I stopped his Election from being stolen” — something that would imply massive criminal election interference if true.
However, according to The Daily Beast, newly released FBI records suggest it isn't true.
"That is news to the feds," said the report on Tuesday. "NBC News reports that in response to the freedom of information inquiry, the FBI says it was 'unable to identify records' that would support Trump’s boast. Trump declined to comment to the network."
This comes a month after a government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit with the Justice Department to turn over any documents that might offer insight into whether such a raid of Broward County ever occurred.
"There is considerable public interest in learning the veracity of former President Trump's claims about sending federal law enforcement to Broward County during the 2018 election in support of then-candidates [Rick Scott] and DeSantis," said the lawsuit.
Trump has increasingly attacked DeSantis by claiming he is disloyal and would never have won his election without him. In a recent speech, Trump claimed that DeSantis would be working at a "law firm" or maybe "Pizza Hut" if he hadn't intervened to endorse him in the gubernatorial primary.