(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A recently retired senior FBI official has recently criticized how the DOJ handled the Donald Trump classified documents case.
The criticism is coming from a seemingly unlikely source: Steven D’Antuono.
As the former special agent in charge of the Detroit field office, D’Antuono oversaw the FBI’s controversial investigation into militias that were allegedly plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer—a case that was later revealed to be heavily driven by undercover agents and informants.
After arrests were made in that case in October 2020, D’Antuono was promoted to lead the Washington DC field office, where he was in charge for the J6 Capitol Hill protests.
Then, before retiring last November, he helped spearhead the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents—which ultimately led to the former President’s arrest this week.
On that last case, D’Antuono disagreed with the DOJ about its tactics, according to June 9 letter from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Jordan, who recently interviewed D’Antuono, said the retired FBI official had four main objections to the DOJ.
First, he said it was abnormal for the Washington DC field office to be raiding Trump’s Florida property instead of the Miami field office.
“Mr. D’Antuono stated that he had ‘absolutely no idea’ why this decision was made and questioned why the Miami Field Office was not taking the lead on this matter,” Jordan said in his letter.
Second, the DOJ did not assign a U.S. Attorney’s Office to the Trump case, according to D’Antuono.
“Mr. D’Antuono indicated that he ‘never got a good answer’ and was told that the National Security Division would be handling this matter—with Jay Bratt, who leads the Department’s counterintelligence division, as ‘the lead prosecutor on the case,’” Jordan said.
“Mr. Bratt is the same Department lawyer who allegedly improperly pressured a lawyer representing an employee of President Trump.”
Third, D’Antuono said the FBI failed to seek consent to search Trump’s property.
“Based upon his over-20-year tenure at the FBI, Mr. D’Antuono testified that he believed that the FBI, prior to resorting to a search warrant, should have sought consent to search the premises,” Jordan said. “He testified that this outcome would have been ‘the best thing for all parties’ involved—‘for the FBI, for former President Trump, and for the country.’”
Finally, D’Antuono said the FBI refused to wait for Trump’s attorney to be present before executing the search.
“Mr. D’Antuono testified that the FBI sought to exclude President Trump’s attorney from the search, a move with which Mr. D’Antuono disagreed,” Jordan said.
In light of D’Antuono’s criticisms, Jordan requested a slew of documents from Garland’s DOJ—including all records related to meetings between the FBI and DOJ about the Mar-a-Lago raid. Jordan asked for those records by the end of Friday.
Political commentators had varying reactions to D’Antuono’s disclosures. Some welcomed the apparent whistleblower with open arms, while others said his previous actions are unforgiveable.
“Why are Republicans trying to lionize this clown?” asked independent reporter Christina Urso, who is working on a documentary about the Whitmer case.
Steven D'Antuono was head of the FBI Detroit Field Office during the Whitmer Kidnapping plot. He oversaw the #J6 dry run during anti-lockdown protest in April 2020 FBI told Lansing police to stand down and let everyone in the Capitol. He is then promoted to head up the DC Field… https://t.co/NbBrcQcAoO
— Radix Verum (@NotRadix) June 13, 2023
Revolver News suggested that he may have a guilty conscious for his past transgressions.
“Why would such a hatchet man, so intimately involved with the most scandalous abuses of Trump and his followers by the FBI, all of a sudden come clean and publicly object to the Mar-a-Lago raid that was the basis for the expected indictments against Trump?” Revolver asked.
“One possibility is that D’Antuono simply was in over his head in the types of nefarious operations he became involved with, and simply doesn’t have the mettle to carry some of those dark secrets with him,” Revolver wrote.
“Perhaps he is rightfully worried that the DOJ and FBI’s complicity in the Jan. 6 Fedsurrection, as well as the Michigan Fednapping plot and now the efforts to indict Trump will catch up with him. Whatever the reasons, we predict that we haven’t heard the last of Mr. D’Antuono.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
