The Warrant was Not Warranted By Chris Knight (Florida)
Extensive commentary, some referenced below, has indicated that the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Largo mansion was unconstitutional. As detailed below, constitutional lawyers, and Trump’s legal team have argued that Trump as president had the exclusive power to declassify documents, and did. That defeats the main point in black letter of the search warrant. Under the Fourth Amendment, warrants need particulars to be specified, which is its point, to stop illegal fishing searches such as this one: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
As detailed below, the FBI basically trashed the Trump mansion, even putting grubby hands on Melania’s panty drawer, looking for secrets there! And they left with boxes of material which was just grabbed, the required particulars not being given. Clearly, they were talking this home to see what could be found. It is an extraordinary affair, far worse than Watergate, which at least tried for secrecy. Now there is open KGB tactics in the once land of the free. Sad, as Trump says.
https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/14/the-fbis-mar-a-lago-panty-raid/
“The seven-page warrant that authorized the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s property earlier this week was unsealed Friday, and it shows that Trump is under federal investigation for obstruction of justice and other alleged violations.
Trump is under investigation for alleged violations of 18 USC 2071—concealment, removal, or mutilation; 18 USC 793 of the Espionage Act—gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information; and 18 USC 1519—destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, according to the warrant, which was unsealed by Judge Bruce Reinhart on Friday afternoon. A conviction under these statutes can lead to imprisonment or fines.
The search and seizure warrant shows FBI agents targeted “the ’45 Office,’ all storage rooms, and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by FPOTUS (former president of the United States) and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.”
Agents were granted authority to seize “all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed,” according to the warrant. That includes documents with classification markings and presidential records that were drafted between Jan. 20, 2017, and Jan. 20, 2021—when Trump was in office.
The FBI didn’t try to obtain access to search private guest rooms, including members of Mar-a-Lago, according to the warrant. Earlier this week, the judge ordered the Department of Justice to file a response after several groups requested the warrant unsealed.
Federal agents also took a set of alleged “top secret/SCI” documents, four sets of “top secret” documents, three sets of “secret” documents, and three sets of “confidential” documents, according to a property receipt unsealed alongside the warrant Friday. It’s not clear what the documents entailed.
Response
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the former president used his authority as president to declassify the material before he departed office in early 2021.
“The Biden administration is in obvious damage control after their botched raid where they seized the President’s picture books, a ‘hand-written note,’ and declassified documents,” Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich told Fox News as the warrant was unsealed Friday. “This raid of President Trump’s home was not just unprecedented, but unnecessary—and they are leaking lies and innuendos to try to explain away the weaponization of government against their dominant political opponent. This is outrageous.”
The Department of Justice on Thursday filed a motion to unseal the warrant unless Trump objects to the move. The filing came around the same time Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he personally approved the FBI’s search in Florida.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of the documents,” Trump wrote Thursday, referring to the FBI’s warrant. “I am going a step further by encouraging the immediate release of those documents,” he said.
And on Friday, Trump posted that the documents the FBI alleged seized were “all declassified” and agents “they could have had [the documents] anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago.” He added, “It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request.”
Trump also wrote that Former President Obama “kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!”
The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported Thursday that some documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items sought by the FBI. But Trump on Friday morning said the report is a hoax and a continuation of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative that was pushed by legacy news outlets starting in late 2016.
Republicans have said the unprecedented FBI raid is a politicized attempt to target a former president who is currently mulling a 2024 run. Since Monday, several GOP lawmakers have called on federal agencies to release the affidavit, which would provide more details as to what information the FBI was acting upon when it attempted to obtain the warrant.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote on Twitter Friday that the Department of Justice “must release the information as to why a warrant was necessary, not what was taken … they can redact the names and other sensitive information, but DOJ must lay their cards on the table.”
“New details have come out concerning the warrant for the FBI's August 8 raid on former President Donald J. Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, as well as what the FBI walked out with.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the FBI confiscated 11 sets of classified documents and removed 20 boxes of items. Four sets of documents are said to have been marked "top secret," but there is still no confirmation of the allegations made in the Washington Post earlier today suggesting that Trump possessed sensitive documents pertaining to nuclear bombs.
Another three sets of documents were allegedly marked "secret," and there was a handful marked "confidential."
Trump's lawyers suggested that he used his authority to declassify the material prior to leaving the White House. The Wall Street Journal noted that a president does, in fact, wield the power to declassify documents, but added that there is a federally-regulated process for doing so.
Trump took to TruthSocial to address the matter of possessing allegedly classified documents: "Number one, it was all declassified. Number two, they didn't need to 'seize' anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago."
The former president again contrasted his treatment with that of another former president: "What are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of which are classified, that President Obama took to Chicago?"
The Obama administration, which spent $36.2 million on legal costs in a single year in an effort to avoid turning over federal records under the Freedom of Information Act, allegedly made the bulk of its records available as recently as January 20 of this year.
Among the items the FBI took from Trump's residence were:
- a binder of photos;
- "Info re: President of France";
- Leather-bound box of documents;
- "Potential Presidential Record";
- a handwritten note; and
- the executive grant of clemency for Roger Stone, whose house was similarly raided by the FBI.
The search and seizure warrant that Attorney General Merrick Garland greenlit and U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart signed reportedly authorized FBI agents to search "the 45 Office" along with "all storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by [the former president] and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate."
Politico reported that the FBI is investigating Trump for a potential violation of the Espionage Act. The warrant indicates further that federal law enforcement is investigating the former president for concealment, removal or mutilation; for gathering, transmitting or losing defense information; and for destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The affidavit in support of the search warrant remains under seal. Missing from the warrant application, but found in the affidavit, would be: the basis provided for believing that classified documents resided at Mar-a-Lago, any information gathered through surveillance or informants, and the assertion of probable cause.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said that the FBI's raid was "not just unprecedented, but unnecessary — and now they are leaking lies and innuendos to try to explain away the weaponization of government against their dominant political opponent.”
“New, alleged details about the raid of former President Donald Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago hint that it's "not looking good for the FBI," said BlazeTV host Glenn Beck on the radio program Thursday.
Trump has faced attacks from every direction, but despite all of it, he has "not been found guilty or had any kind of real, solid evidence against him," Glenn pointed out.
Glenn detailed a long list of investigations, accusations, and lawsuits against Trump, and the latest puzzling revelations about the FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago, which only seem to raise even more questions. For example, did agents truly refuse to give Trump's lawyer a copy of the warrant upon arriving at the home? Because sources have alleged that his attorney was kept "10 feet away from the warrant" and was not allowed to actually read it. If that's true, then it was absolutely against the law.
Then there was the inordinate amount of time spent going through Melania Trump's closet. And did they have the proper authority to break into Trump's safe?
"That warrant had better damn well say that they can break into that safe because the law is, you can't go into somebody's house and ... just tear it all apart," Glenn said. "You have to have a pretty good idea of where things might be located, and you ask for permission for those areas. And you have to know exactly what you're looking for, and if it's in a safe, you need to specifically say, 'it's in a safe and we're having a safe cracker come in.' If they didn't say in the warrant that they could crack his safe, it's the fruit of the poisoned tree. By the way, there was nothing in the safe."
Glenn also explained that the FBI broke into a specific "safe room" that contained national archives, which Trump was allegedly told by investigators to keep in a locked room.
"[Trump] made a safe room, and put two locks on it, at their request. And that's what they broke into," Glenn said. "This doesn't look good for the FBI," he added.”
“A search warrant newly unsealed on Friday reveals that the FBI is investigating Donald Trump for a potential violation of the Espionage Act and that agents removed classified documents from the former president’s Florida estate earlier this week.
A receipt accompanying the search warrant, viewed by POLITICO in advance of its unsealing, shows that Trump possessed documents including a handwritten note; documents marked with “TS/SCI,” which indicates one of the highest levels of government classification; and another item labeled “Info re: President of France.”
Also among the items taken from Mar-a-Lago this week: An item labeled “Executive grant of clemency re: Roger Jason Stone, Jr.,” a reference to one of Trump’s closest confidants who received a pardon in late 2020.
The warrant shows federal law enforcement was investigating Trump for removal or destruction of records, obstruction of justice and violating the Espionage Act — which can encompass crimes beyond spying, such as the refusal to return national security documents upon request. Conviction under the statutes can result in imprisonment or fines.
The documents, unsealed after the Justice Department sought their public disclosure amid relentless attacks by Trump and his GOP allies, underscore the extraordinary national security threat that federal investigators believed the missing documents presented. The concern grew so acute that Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the unprecedented search of Trump’s estate last week.
The disclosure of the documents comes four days after Trump publicly confirmed the court-authorized search of his Mar-a-Lago home by the FBI, marshaling his political allies to unleash fierce criticism of federal investigators. But the details in the warrant underscore the gravity of the probe — an unprecedented investigation of a former president for mishandling some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets.
Trump’s office, in a statement provided to John Solomon — the conservative journalist who is one of Trump’s authorized representatives to the National Archives — claimed late Friday that Trump often took classified documents to his residence and had issued a never-before-revealed “standing order” that all documents removed this way “were deemed to be declassified.”
“The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States,” the statement read. “The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.”
But that’s stands in contrast with how Trump’s office has handled matters of declassification in the past. In Oct. 2020, the final month before the election, then-chief of staff Mark Meadows declared to a court that a Trump tweet deeming all Russia probe-related materials declassified was not in fact a “self-executing order” from the president.
Trump has claimed since Monday that he has cooperated with investigators from the National Archives and FBI for months and that the unannounced search was an unnecessary escalation. But after several rounds of negotiations in which materials were recovered by the Archives, federal investigators came to believe Trump hadn’t returned everything in his possession.
The search warrant, signed on Aug. 5 by federal magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart, revealed that dozens of items were seized, most of them described in vague terms like “leatherbound box of documents,” “binder of photos” and “handwritten note.”
Other items on the list indicate the presence of classified material, describing them as “miscellaneous top secret documents” and “miscellaneous confidential documents.”
Stone’s attorney Grant Smith said that the longtime Trump ally “has no knowledge as to the facts surrounding his clemency documents appearing on the inventory of items seized from former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.”
Shortly after 3 p.m., the Justice Department confirmed that Trump’s lawyers would not oppose the public release of the search warrant and underlying receipt of materials, which had already begun to circulate widely.”
“Former President Donald Trump said overnight that he supports the immediate release of any documents related to the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-lago estate in Florida earlier this week, which he deemed to be politically motivated.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going to step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me, much as they have done for the last six years,” Trump said in a statement on Truth Social.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday asked a federal court to unseal the warrant itself, some supporting materials, and a receipt listing items taken by FBI agents from the Mar-a-Lago resort during the raid.
Now that the raid has been executed, the government’s lawyers said in a new filing that making the warrant public “would not ‘impair court functions,’ including the government’s ability to execute the warrant.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, said on Thursday that the DOJ filed the motion to unseal the documents “in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances, and the substantial public interest in this matter.”
The DOJ has until 3 p.m. on Friday to notify U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart whether or not Trump agreed or opposed the unsealing of the warrant and any related documents.
‘Release the Documents Now!’
Trump called the FBI’s raid on his Palm Beach estate evidence of “prosecutorial misconduct” and a “weaponization of the Justice System.”
The former president alleged that the raid is motivated by people who don’t want him to run again for president in 2024.
In his latest statement released on Truth Social, Trump referred to his popularity in the polls and reiterated his statements that the raid was “political weaponization of law enforcement,” something more commonly seen in developing countries with corrupt political systems.
“My poll numbers are the strongest they have ever been, fundraising by the Republican Party is breaking all records, and midterm elections are fast approaching,” Trump said.
“This unprecedented political weaponization of law enforcement is inappropriate and highly unethical. The world is watching as our country is being brought to a new low, not only on our border, crime, economy, energy, national security, and so much more, but also with respect to our sacred elections! Release the documents now!”
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