Dan Crenshaw's Claims to Jake Tapper on CNN: What We Do Know, What We Don't

There has been no shortage of outrage from Republicans condemning the FBI and the Department of Justice for the raid of former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

Some GOP members have made some outlandish statements, such as claiming Mar-a-Lago was a "pretty safe place" for classified documents, with more Republicans appearing to support the president in the weeks that have followed.

Among them is Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who this week claimed that Trump had cooperated with the authorities.

Mr Crenshaw, while characterizing the raid as "political," also distanced himself from calls by colleagues to "defund the FBI."

CNN host Jake Tapper, who was interviewing Crenshaw, called the Texas Congressman's criticism of the FBI and DOJ "fairly measured."

Nonetheless, the interview was picked up on social media, with some criticizing Tapper's approach, accusing him of not pushing back hard enough against some of the statements.

The news organization has announced significant changes under new owners Warner Brothers Discovery, including ending CNN's media affairs show Reliable Sources, hosted by Brian Stelter.

One tweet, sent on August 21 2022, which received more than 127,000 engagements, attempted to connect the dropping of Reliable Sources to the Crenshaw interview.

What We Do Know

Much of what Crenshaw said is largely his opinion, but there are a few claims worth examining.

During the interview, Crenshaw said that Trump had been cooperating with the DOJ and that the former president had told it "whatever you need from us, just ask."

There appears to be no evidence available to support this claim, apart from Trump's own assertion that Crenshaw appears to take at face value.

Newsweek has previously spoken to experts about the grounds for the search, both before and after it was revealed there were potential national security concerns.

Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi spoke to Newsweek previously about the circumstances surrounding the search.

"I would suspect that if they had reason to believe that he was continuing to withhold, allegedly, nuclear secrets, military secrets, I think a judge would have an easier time to approve that search warrant," Rossi said.

He went on, "But I have to stress, this affidavit that they submitted to the judge, I would be very surprised if it was not incredibly detailed, deep in evidentiary foundation and filled with corroborating documents and witnesses to support the search warrant."

Again, there is nothing on record to confirm that Trump told the FBI "whatever you need from us, just ask," less so whether he followed through on that offer.

For now, we can only speculate why a search was warranted. It could be that the FBI was being heavy handed and Trump was going to hand over the documents anyway; or that Trump was cooperating to some extent but not to the satisfaction of authorities; or that new information about the status of documents/materials justified a search; or that Trump was ignoring/refusing requests to return documents and/or materials altogether.

However, what's crucial here is that Crenshaw claims he knows for a fact that Trump was cooperating with authorities, despite insufficient primary evidence to suggest that it was indeed the case.

Crenshaw did make one verifiably misleading statement later in the interview, when he claimed that a White House spokesperson said people "should be out protesting Supreme Court Justices' homes even after Brett Kavanaugh had his life threatened."

That is misleading. It appears that Crenshaw is referring to the following White House press conference in which press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that while the president "condemned" intimidation, people should be able to protest peacefully.

Jean-Pierre was responding to a question about Supreme Court Justices, who after overruling Roe v. Wade, faced criticism and protest from some Americans.

In May, 2022, Nicholas Roske was arrested after he allegedly appeared outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh's Maryland neighborhood with a gun. Officials reported the man was allegedly angry about the leaked draft opinion regarding Roe v. Wade. Roske has since been charged with attempted murder.

Then, in July 2022, protestors arrived at Morton's steakhouse in Washington D.C. to confront Brett Kavanaugh; Justice Kavanaugh was later escorted out of the back of the restaurant.

During the press conference Jean-Pierre said that peaceful protest was justified, even outside a restaurant where a Justice was eating.

"If it's outside of a restaurant, if it's peaceful, for sure," she said.

So Crenshaw's summary of the exchange is misleading. The White House wasn't directing people to protest Supreme Court Justices at their place of residence.

In response to the claim that Trump had been cooperating with authorities, Tapper did say: "But he didn't turn over boxes and boxes of materials, as far as the Justice Department says" and "[Trump's] lawyers said they didn't have any more classified information, and the Justice Department said, yes, you do. And they went and got it."

Although Tapper didn't respond to the claim about Karine Jean-Pierre, it can be difficult, if not impossible to respond to all untruthful or misleading comments that an interviewee makes, particularly where comments can't be anticipated.

The responsibility here falls to interviewees, like Crenshaw, who may attempt to present themselves as reasonably-minded, but still make misleading statements.

Newsweek has contacted Dan Crenshaw for comment.

What We Don't Know

As stated, there is only speculation as to why the FBI had to take documents from Mar-a-Lago. The unsealing of the search warrant tells us the type of documents they were after, but not a great deal more than that.

While the affidavit (for now) remains under seal, we still don't know the series of events that led up to the search or what warranted the bureau's investigation of former president Trump's house. As the investigation is still ongoing that may not be revealed for some time.

Trump's recently filed lawsuit against the DOJ over the Mar-a-Lago search does not appear to offer any new insights that the former president hasn't already expressed via his Truth Social Media app.

This again highlights why Crenshaw's comments about the exchanges with the FBI are speculative and not ground in facts.