A first step to court for some, “political persecution” for others: Tuesday’s spectacular FBI search of Donald Trump’s home shed new light on America’s deep divisions at a time when the former president is clearly flirting with a new candidacy, Commentary AFP quotes Agerpres.

Never before has the former leader of an American administration been so troubled by justice.

Was the federal police search related to the many boxes that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021? Is it related to the investigation into his involvement in the storming of the Capitol? Is it more about the suspected financial fraud that is the target of the Trump Organization in New York?

The FBI declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

Donald Trump, who has maintained his innocence in each of these cases and claims he has become the target of a witch hunt, strongly condemned the search in which he was not involved.

“Our nation lives in dark times,” he lamented, assuring that “this unannounced search of (his) home was neither necessary nor appropriate.”

“No one is above the law (…) not even the former president,” responded Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who, like most other tenors in her camp, has been asking for years for NBC Days to bring the former real estate mogul to justice. .

A day after the federal police raid, Republican Rep. Scott Perry announced that FBI agents had seized his phone, but the Donald Trump ally did not specify why.

“This morning while I was traveling with my family, I was visited by three FBI agents and my cell phone was confiscated,” he told Fox News, denouncing “banana republic tactics.”

The judicial escalation also appears to have strengthened Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, which has rallied around the former businessman until it has turned him into a martyr.

Immediately after the search was announced, a group of Donald Trump supporters went to the former businessman’s luxury residence to show their anger.

Many of them waved flags reading “Biden is not my president,” another demonstration that more than a year and a half after Donald Trump’s election loss, tens of millions of Americans remain firmly convinced that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen from him.” “.

On social media, some Trumpists on Tuesday simply called for a “divorce” in a country where divisions are so open they can seem irreconcilable.

“This is what happens in countries that are at civil war,” said Marjorie Taylor Green, the Georgia representative-elect known for her excesses, even calling for the abolition of the FBI. “Political persecution must stop!” she insisted.

His camp could regain control of Congress in November’s general election, which is proving dangerous for Joe Biden’s camp.

Condemning the “intolerable instrumentalization for political purposes” of the Justice Department, House Conservative Leader Kevin McCarthy promised an investigation into its activities if Republicans are returned to power.

White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that Joe Biden was notified in advance of the search of his former (and potential future) rival in the presidential election.

“President Biden has made it very clear, before he was elected and since the beginning of his term, that the Department of Justice conducts its investigations independently. He believes in the rule of law,” she said.

Donald Trump, who could at any time announce himself as a candidate for a new mandate, used the opportunity to once again call for the generosity of his supporters.

“Not only my home was attacked, but the homes of every patriotic American I fought for,” he pleaded in an email to his supporters, offering to donate $5 to $5,000 to fight the “witch hunt,” he concluded. AFP. .