A search warrant for the raid of former President Donald Trump’s lavish Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was “very” thin, his lawyer claims.
Christina Bobb was one of the three attorneys for Trump who reportedly arrived on the scene Monday after FBI agents began to search the property. Bobb said after a brief back-and-forth with the agents that she managed to see the search warrant but was not allowed to see the affidavit that contains more details on why the search was permitted. Since the raid, which Trump himself revealed in a statement claiming he was the target of a political operation, there have been calls for him to release the warrant.
TIMELINE OF TRUMP RAID: HOW IT ALL UNFOLDED
“It was very, I would say, thin, and as you can tell, it went from public records. The affidavit, the supporting documentation of what the probable cause was to obtain the warrant, has been sealed, so we’re not allowed to see that. We have to go to court to request the judge to release that, which may or may not happen,” she said in an interview Tuesday on Real America’s Voice. “So, we don’t know what the probable cause is.”
Eric Trump, one of Donald Trump’s sons, told Fox News on Monday that he was informed the raid was related to a Justice Department investigation of his father’s alleged mishandling of classified material. Earlier this year, the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved about 15 boxes worth of material it contends were presidential records.
Upon review of the records, the agency discovered classified material and referred the matter to the DOJ, according to a letter David Ferriero, the archivist of the United States at the time, sent to Congress back in February. The DOJ subsequently opened a grand jury inquiry into the matter, the New York Times reported. The DOJ and FBI have declined to comment on the raid, and the White House insists President Joe Biden had no foreknowledge of it.
Bobb contended that as president, Trump had sweeping jurisdiction over what material should be classified.
“It is the president himself who gets to decide what is a presidential record. So why they get to redefine that is unclear and why they get to search — why that’s even in a warrant, it doesn’t really make any sense. And the same thing with any potential classified information, which I don’t believe there was any down there,” she continued. “We had done a search of it before and didn’t find anything noteworthy yet. I’m sure that they’re claiming that there was something terribly egregious that’s a grave matter of national security, but we’ll find out.”
Some Trump allies such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich fretted that the public has “no idea” if agents planted evidence at the resort. Bobb did not dismiss that possibility during the interview but said she did not believe this happened even as she claimed FBI agents “precluded” her from closely watching their search.
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Trump decried the raid as “dark times for our nation” in a post to his Truth Social platform that confirmed the raid took place. He is eyeing another campaign for the presidency even “stronger” now than he had before the raid, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who had a call with Trump Tuesday. Democratic lawyer Marc Elias referenced a law Monday he believes could bar Trump from running again over the records debacle.
“The code that they want to try to prosecute him under would allow for them to say he’s not allowed to run for office again, so they’re salivating to try to prevent him from running for office again. The problem is there are no crimes committed so they cannot actually legitimately get a conviction,” Bobb said.
