Trump brags that he 'openly and transparently' took government documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago

• Trump boasted about "openly and transparently" moving official government records to Mar-a-Lago.
• The DOJ is investigating if Trump broke federal law when he moved and refused to return the documents after leaving the White House.

Former President Donald Trump boasted on Monday about how he "openly and transparently" moved government records from the White House to Mar-a-Lago upon leaving office.

"...When will you invade Bill and Hillary's home in search of the 33,000 emails she deleted AFTER receiving a subpoena from the U.S. Congress?" Trump wrote on his social media website, Truth Social. "When will you invade the other Presidents' homes in search of documents, which are voluminous, which they took with them, but not nearly so openly and transparently as I did?"

The Justice Department is currently investigating whether Trump broke federal law by moving documents to Mar-a-Lago upon leaving the White House. It's one of several criminal probes Trump is facing, and the DOJ and Attorney General Merrick Garland are under tremendous public pressure to remain independent as they investigate everything from Trump's retention of official records to his involvement in the deadly January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

That pressure ratcheted up a notch when Trump announced earlier this month that he was mounting a 2024 presidential run. A few days later, Garland appointed Jack Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor, as special counsel to oversee criminal investigations involving Trump.

"Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel," Garland said.

Trump went on a tirade against Smith on Monday as well, writing on Truth Social that the special counsel is a "fully weaponized monster" who "shouldn't be let anywhere near the political persecution of 'President Donald J. Trump.'"

"I did nothing wrong on January 6th, and nothing wrong with the Democrats' fix on the Document Hoax, that is, unless the six previous Presidents did something wrong also...." he wrote.