Process demands that law enforcement must convince a judge that they have probable cause to believe a crime has been committed before a warrant is issued to search someone’s property. We have no doubt the FBI met that bar before they searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home Monday.
Politics, however, demands that the Department of Justice must justify the time, resources, and tactics used by the FBI when enforcing federal law. It is entirely unclear if the DOJ can defend the FBI’s unprecedented search of a former president’s home for what appears to be document retention malfeasance.
Every day that the DOJ fails to explain why the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago was absolutely necessary is another day the agency loses more of its already strained credibility.
The FBI showed up unannounced at Mar-a-Lago at 9 a.m. Monday morning. Agents wore street clothes so as not to alert guests at the Florida resort. The Secret Service admitted them to the property without incident. They left around 6:30 p.m. with dozens of boxes, which were then taken to the South Florida FBI field office.
The search warrant had been issued by a federal judge in West Palm Beach based on evidence obtained from an earlier load of documents Trump’s lawyers delivered to the FBI. Based on what Trump had turned over previously, FBI agents believed there were more classified documents being unlawfully stored at the resort. It is those classified documents that the FBI seized Monday. There have been no reports that anything seized was related to the Jan. 6 riot.
Some have suggested that if Trump is convicted of mishandling classified material, he could be barred from running for president again. This is untrue. Federal statute does bar those convicted of mishandling classified information from “holding any office under the United States.” But the Supreme Court has ruled that neither Congress nor state governments can create new and additional qualifications for running for Congress, and it would very likely rule the same way regarding the presidency. Absent a constitutional amendment, Congress lacks the power to decide who can and cannot run for president.
It is also worth noting that the statute under which the FBI appears to be investigating Trump is the exact same statute Hillary Clinton violated when she maintained a private email server as secretary of state. The FBI never raided Clinton’s home even though she destroyed evidence relevant to that investigation.
This is where the DOJ’s explanation for its actions becomes so important. In addition to the disparate treatment received by Clinton, Republicans have been given ample cause to call into question the impartiality of DOJ and FBI employees.
A whistleblower has provided Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) with evidence that FBI employees Timothy Thibault and Brian Auten abused their power to shut down investigations into illegal activity documented by Hunter Biden’s laptop and falsely labeled as “disinformation” material from that laptop, all to the political benefit of Biden’s father, the sitting president.
The FBI, unfortunately, also has an established reputation for falsifying information submitted to federal courts in order to obtain warrants to investigate Trump allies. FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering an email used to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wiretap of Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Clinesmith received just 400 hours of community service for this very serious crime — no jail time, no fines.
These abuses by the FBI in the highest-profile cases appear to be widespread. A 2019 internal FBI audit found that bureau agents broke their own rules at least 747 times over an 18-month period. That is completely unacceptable.
Maybe those dozens of boxes hauled away by the FBI on Monday contain classified material so important to the national security of the United States that their improper storage justified an unprecedented, unannounced raid on a former president’s home. If so, the DOJ should immediately make this known publicly.
Voters also deserve to know who made the decision to raid Trump’s home and how they arrived at the conclusion that it was necessary. They should not have to wait until November, when one or both chambers of Congress change hands, for Republicans to start issuing subpoenas. The investigation should start as soon as possible because the public deserves to know.
