House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Tuesday defended the FBI's raid of former President Donald Trump's private residence at Mar-a-Lago, saying the Justice Department must have had a "justification" for a step that outraged allies of the ex-president suspect was a blunt political attack.
"A visit like that you need a warrant, to have a warrant, you need justification, and that says that no one is above the law — not even a president or a former president of the United States," Pelosi told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday morning.
Pelosi said she had no prior knowledge of a pending raid and only learned of it when she read it online.
"All I know about that is what is in the public domain," she said. "I was surprised that it flashed on my phone last evening."
The White House said Tuesday that likewise, President Joe Biden was not briefed on the raid ahead of time, as the Justice Department's activities are supposed to be independent.
Pelosi expects the ultimate justification to come out in due time, reiterating she was not privy to details beyond what was reported in the media.
"All of this will, I'm sure, be made known to us over time," she continued. "But I have no knowledge of it."
Pelosi did speculate the raid might have been related to the preservation of presidential documents. That has been raised in various media reports as well.
"I do know that there has been chatter — or more than chatter — about the presidential, president's documents and how they must be preserved for history," she added. "And we'll see what the justification was for the raid. I just don't know. I think everybody was surprised by it."
The raid has been sharply condemned by fellow Republicans, but also by current and former political leaders on both sides of the aisle. Several have urged the DOJ to justify its actions. However, the department has remained largely silent; past prosecutors said this is in accordance with procedure.
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.