Russia uses FBI Trump raid to ‘foment discord’ and ‘amplify tensions’ in US, expert says

Russian state media outlets have been offering words of support for Former President Donald Trump amid the FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida in an attempt to sow discord in the U.S.

“The Russians understand that Donald Trump is a hot button in America and they use their narratives to foment discord and amplify tensions in our country,” Rebekah Koffler, a former DIA intelligence officer and the author of ”Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America,” told Fox News.

The comments come after multiple Russian media outlets have expressed support for Trump in the days since the FBI raid on his home, with both Izvestia and RenTV arguing over the weekend that the raid was designed to prevent Trump from running for president in 2024.

Koffler argued that the Russian outlets have seized on the raid at the direction of the Kremlin.

FBI SEIZED CLASSIFIED RECORDS FROM MAR-A-LAGO DURING RAID OF TRUMP’S FLORIDA RESIDENCE

Former President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, right.
(AP)

“It’s important to understand that there’s an ulterior motive why the Russian government and the media, almost all of which is controlled by the Russian government,” Koffler said. “It’s part of Russian official but undeclared policy and strategy. The Russian media does what the Kremlin tells them to do.”

The FBI raid of Trump’s Florida home has been controversial, with the former president saying the law enforcement agency has long been corrupt. The FBI seized classified records, including some marked top secret, during the Monday raid according to a warrant and property receipt that was unsealed Friday. 

The FBI has a long and unrelenting history of being corrupt. Just look back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover,” Trump said on TRUTH social Saturday. “In the modern era, nothing has changed except that it has gotten far worse.”

A police officer speaks with a woman outside former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home after Trump said that FBI agents raided it, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., August 8, 2022. 
(REUTERS/Marco Bello)

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Many Republican lawmakers have rallied to support the former president since news of the raid broke, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who many view as the only significant challenger to Trump’s grip on the party ahead of the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

The raid of [Mar-a-Lago] is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves,” DeSantis said on Twitter last week. “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”