Biden White House Coordinated With DOJ Ahead Of FBI Raid On Mar-a-Lago: Emails
New evidence suggests the Biden White House was far more involved in the FBI’s unprecedented raid of President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence than the public was ever told, raising serious questions about political interference in federal law enforcement.
Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, told The New York Post in an exclusive interview that he personally reviewed emails showing coordination between Joe Biden’s White House Counsel’s Office, the Department of Justice under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the months leading up to the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI search of Trump’s Palm Beach estate.
“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.”
According to Mizelle, the emails reveal active discussions involving the White House, DOJ, and NARA regarding documents at Mar-a-Lago—until those communications suddenly 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 their existence to The Post, though the outlet has not independently reviewed the documents.
The revelations come as newly released internal FBI and DOJ communications—made public Tuesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)—exposed significant internal dissent ahead of the Mar-a-Lago raid. According to those records, some FBI officials believed probable cause had not been established to justify a search warrant. Those objections were reportedly overridden by DOJ leadership and then–Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team.
Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono was among the FBI officials who opposed the search. Smith’s deputy, Jay Bratt, pushed forward, and Garland ultimately approved the warrant.
During the search, the FBI seized 102 classified documents, leading to President Trump’s June 2023 indictment. That case collapsed in July 2024 when a federal judge ruled Smith had been unlawfully appointed as special counsel without congressional authorization.
Mizelle said the emails he reviewed directly contradict DOJ policies that are supposed to firewall the White House from criminal investigations.
In a July 21, 2021 memo, Garland explicitly stated that the Justice Department would not advise the White House about “pending or contemplated criminal or civil law enforcement investigations” except when necessary for the president’s official 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.”
In the immediate aftermath of the raid, Biden administration officials repeatedly claimed the president had no advance knowledge of the search. Then–White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to comment when pressed on the issue.
President Trump’s legal team had long argued that the raid was politically coordinated. In a January 2024 court filing, attorneys Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise cited evidence of “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.”
That claim was further supported by a May 10, 2022 letter from then–Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall, who acknowledged seeking the return of documents from Trump’s Florida residence based in part on communications with “Counsel to the President.”
NARA formally referred the matter to the DOJ in February 2022, and Garland authorized a criminal investigation the following month.
Smith’s team later insisted that White House involvement was only “formal and limited,” and argued that key internal DOJ communications were shielded by privilege.
But as more evidence comes to light, the narrative that the Mar-a-Lago raid was a neutral, apolitical law enforcement action is increasingly difficult to sustain—particularly as President Trump now serves his second term after defeating the very political machine that once weaponized the federal government against him.