In a May 21 TRUTH Social post, 2024 presumptive Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump claimed President Joe Biden purportedly authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to use “deadly force” during an August 2022 raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence.

Verdict: Misleading

The FBI told Check Your Fact via email that the bureau “followed standard protocol” during its August 2022 search of the former Republican President’s home. Former FBI agents also said the language was standard.

Fact Check:

Former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, who suspended her Republican presidential primary campaign in March, said she will vote for Trump in the November presidential election, according to CNN.

In his May 21 TRUTH Social post, Trump claimed Biden purportedly authorized the FBI to use “deadly force” during an August 2022 raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence.

“WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the ‘Icebox,’ and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!,” Trump wrote.

The claim is misleading. A spokesperson for the FBI told Check Your Fact via email that the bureau “followed standard protocol” during its August 2022 search of the former Republican President’s home.

“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter. The standard deadly force policy statement included in the operations order for the search of the former president’s residence was also included in the operations order for the search of the sitting president’s residence in Delaware, as is standard practice for all FBI operations orders,” the spokesperson said.

Nancy Savage, a spokesperson for the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, reacted to the FBI’s statement, noting that the bureau “does not alter [its] use of force policy.”

“This is what I believed to be the case when I read about this,” Savage said of the statement. “The FBI does not alter their use of force policy on my experience  based on any particular situation.”

“I am a long time Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent – we train from our time at the FBI Academy with this policy. We practice at firearms with practical exercises at the Academy and multiple times a year with shoot – don’t shoot practical exercises and at legal training with scenarios that embody this policy.  The decisions one has to make in the field with little time have to be deeply ingrained in your mind. The FBI does not change their policy willy nilly.  They do not change the policy that I am aware of for any individual situations. It would just not make sense. Agents live and breathe deadly force policy and constitutional rights policy. Full stop,” she added.

Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent, also said in a May 21 tweet that the “policy is always the same and always in effect.”

My team briefed the DOJ deadly force policy DAILY before each of our surveillance missions.

Reason: CYA. The policy is always the same and always in effect. But should a shooting happen, it is preferable to say the last time it was briefed was the same day of the shooting. https://t.co/IhB5RTZayA

— Kyle Seraphin (@KyleSeraphin) May 21, 2024

“My team briefed the DOJ deadly force policy DAILY before each of our surveillance missions. Reason: CYA. The policy is always the same and always in effect. But should a shooting happen, it is preferable to say the last time it was briefed was the same day of the shooting,” Seraphin tweeted.

In addition, a May 21 motion for relief filed with the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Florida’s West Palm Beach Division, indicates an “Operations Order” produced in discovery contained a policy statement regarding the use of deadly force.

The policy statement contained in the order noted “Law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary.” The statement also revealed the agents “planned to bring ‘standard issue weapon[s],’ ‘ammo,’ ‘handcuffs,’ and ‘medium and large sized bolt cutters,’ but were instructed to wear ‘unmarked polo or collared shirts’ and keep ‘law enforcement equipment concealed.'” The FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence took place on Aug. 8, 2022, according to the same motion.

Furthermore, both Forbes and The Washington Post labeled Trump’s claim as false. Besides his TRUTH Social Post, Trump also claimed Biden authorized the FBI to use deadly force during the Mar-a-Lago raid via a recent campaign fundraising email, Forbes reported. (RELATED: Would Virginia State University Be The First HBCU To Host A Presidential Debate?)

Similarly, NBC News reported that Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Paul Gosar (Arizona) “conflated standard FBI policies with an assassination attempt on Trump” in response to respective posts the pair shared via X.

Check Your Fact has contacted the White House, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a Trump spokesperson for comment.