judge permitting them to enter. the search by a large uniformed team ununiformed team, excuse me, took hours and included getting into trump s safe. mr. trump who announced the search in a statement on his website railed against it claiming prosecutorial misconduct and political persecution. he was in manhattan at the time in preparation for an upcoming deposition, part of the civil investigation by the new york state attorney s office into his organization s finances. the former president s lawyer was at the scene in florida and called it an unannounced raid to seize paper. white house officials tell nbc news they had no prior knowledge and justice department officials are refusing to comment. we have the story completely covered throughout this hour, including a deep dive with legal experts and historian michael beschloss, as well as the political fallout. we begin with nbc s kerry sanders, ken dilanian, ryan reilly and josh daucey. we did hear from donald trump during
political opponent. it raises two questions of historic con kwens. does this put us one step closer to criminal charges against president trump? and could he after hinting as recently as this past weekend going to run for reelection be barred from holding off ever again? these are questions not only facing him, but also his mote fervent supporters. we saw a bit of their anger when a small group of protesters gathered after the news broke. and republican senator tim scott of south carolina reminded us of this. certainly as the largest voice of republican or democrat will continue to be the more focus you put on him, the more likely supporters will rally around him. meanwhile on capitol hill, a furious reaction from some other big name republicans. right after the news broke, house minority leader kevin mccarthy threatened an investigation in writing against attorney general merrick garland and the justice department. and just this morning, nbc news learned that more than a