The Biden White House coordinated with the Department of Justice ahead of the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence before shifting the conversation “offline,” according to Chad Mizelle, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Mizelle told The New York Post in an exclusive interview Wednesday that he reviewed emails showing coordination between officials in former President Joe Biden’s White House Counsel’s Office, the DOJ under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the National Archives and Records Administration in the months leading up to the Aug. 8, 2022, search of Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate, The New York Post reported.
“We have concrete evidence that Biden’s White House was very much involved in the most unprecedented, unjust and improper law enforcement act, really in the history of our country,” Mizelle said. “Which is to use the FBI to raid the home of a political rival and former president of the United States.”
Mizelle said the emails showed discussions about the documents at Mar-a-Lago involving the White House, DOJ, and NARA before communications abruptly stopped.
“They were talking about it. They’re talking about documents. They were looping in NARA,” he said. “And continuing to talk about it until at one point, somebody says, ‘Hey, why don’t we take this offline.’”
“And then all of a sudden every email communication on this thing stops,” Mizelle added.
A source familiar with the emails confirmed to The Post that the communications exist, though the outlet has not independently reviewed the documents.
The comments come as internal FBI and DOJ communications released Tuesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R Iowa) revealed disputes inside the bureau ahead of the Mar-a-Lago search.
According to the documents, some FBI officials believed probable cause had not been established to justify a search warrant, but DOJ officials and then special counsel Jack Smith’s team overrode those objections.
Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono was among the FBI officials opposed to the search, while Smith’s deputy, Jay Bratt, supported moving forward. Garland ultimately approved the warrant.
The FBI recovered 102 classified documents during the search, which led to Trump’s June 2023 indictment.
That case was dismissed in July 2024 after a federal judge ruled Smith had been improperly appointed as special counsel without a congressional vote.
Mizelle said the emails he reviewed conflict with DOJ policies requiring independence from the White House.
In a July 21, 2021, memo, Garland wrote that the Justice Department would not advise the White House about “pending or contemplated criminal or civil law enforcement investigations” unless necessary for the president’s duties.
“If they have a memo that they’re violating, that’s a problem,” Mizelle said. “If they tell the American people they’re not involved and they were in fact involved, that’s a problem.”
Following the raid, Biden White House aides insisted the president had no prior knowledge of the search. Press secretary Karine Jean Pierre declined to comment repeatedly on the matter in the days after it occurred.
Trump’s legal team previously sought evidence of White House coordination during Smith’s prosecution.
In a January 2024 court filing, attorneys Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise argued documents showed “close participation in the investigation by NARA and Biden Administration components such as the White House Counsel’s Office, as well as senior officials at DOJ and FBI.”
Then Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall acknowledged in a May 10, 2022, letter that she was seeking the return of classified documents from Trump’s Florida estate based in part on communications with “Counsel to the President.”
NARA referred the matter to the DOJ in February 2022, and Garland authorized a criminal investigation the following month.
Smith’s team later argued that some internal DOJ communications were privileged and that the White House Counsel’s Office had only “formal and limited” involvement.
