OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
The FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was a Democratic effort to disqualify him from running for president in 2024 by using a weaponized criminal justice system.
Early this month, over 30 FBI agents were dispatched to Melania and Donald Trump’s palatial Palm Beach home. In an unprecedented move, they searched the former first lady’s clothes closet and Trump’s office.
Boxes of White House records were found at Mar-a-Lago, which led to the raid of Trump’s house. While there is an investigation into how some classified documents ended up there, Trump says that he declassified everything already.
MSM has been fueling rumors that someone in close orbit to Trump and his family was a mole who told FBI agents that there were supposed classified documents at the estate.
Leftwing media went as far as accusing Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
But Kushner denied being the “mole” who tipped the FBI off that classified documents were still being kept at Mar-a-Lago. The press, said Kushner, was responsible for amplifying the idea.
Now, in an interview on CNN, one of the outlet’s top reporters said they know who leaked the warrant for a search at President Donald Trump’s private residence.
According to Mediaite, CNN’s Evan Perez, a senior justice correspondent, believes the warrant was given to Breitbart News by former President Trump.
“Perez did not name either Breitbart or Trump while discussing the topic, but as CNN Tonight host Laura Coates pointed out, the names of two FBI agents who signed off on the warrant are public,” the outlet said.
Their names were published in a report on the warrant by Breitbart on Friday afternoon, which was obtained unredacted.
The Department of Justice petitioned to publicize documents relating to the search that were redacted, presumably to protect the identities of agents involved in the raid.
“There’s been an unprecedented number of threats in the wake of that search, including threatening against the two agents who signed the court documents,” Coates said. “First of all, why do people know the names of those two agents? Because it was supposed to have been redacted.”
Given the documents obtained by Breitbart contained the names of personnel on the ground at Mar-a-Lago, Perez concluded the genesis of the identity leaks came from once place: Trump, or someone in his orbit.
In response, Perez did not name the former president, but said:
It was redacted. It was redacted by the court when the document was released. However, before it was released by the court, before it was officially released someone – I think we know who – managed to get it to right wing news organizations, and at least one of them published a document in total, including the names of those federal agents who were simply doing their job.
“They went there to do their job, and then the former president’s social media platform pushed out that information, so, now it’s everywhere among his supporters,” he continued. “And of course predictably, those people are now having to be protected because there are threats against them.”
Of course, this is coming from a senior CNN correspondent and leftist Trump hater, so we expect him to try and smear him with innuendos.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said he “personally approved” the search warrant for Trump’s home.
AG Merrick Garland says he “personally approved” the search warrant.
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) August 11, 2022
Many on the right want Garland investigated and even imprisoned for authorizing the unprecedented raid on a former president’s home.
Also, the case of a past president keeping documents as Trump did is coming into the spotlight.
“When it comes to the National Archives, history has a funny way of repeating itself. And legal experts say a decade-old case over audio tapes that Bill Clinton once kept in his sock drawer may have significant impact over the FBI search of Melania Trump’s closet and Donald Trump’s personal office.” according to Just the News.
The case in question is titled Judicial Watch v. National Archives and Records Administration and it involved an effort by the conservative watchdog to compel the Archives to forcibly seize hours of audio recordings that Clinton made during his presidency with historian Taylor Branch.
For pop culture, the case is most memorable for the revelation that the 42nd president for a time stored the audio tapes in his sock drawer at the White House. The tapes became the focal point of a 2009 book that Branch wrote.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington D.C. ultimately rejected Judicial Watch’s suit by concluding there was no provision in the Presidential Records Act to force the National Archives to seize records from a former president.
However, Jackson’s ruling also made some other comprehensive assertions that pertain more directly to the FBI’s decision to seize Trump’s handwritten notes and files at Mar-a-Lago. One of the most relevant aspects is that a president has a wide range of discretion over what records are considered personal and official, and he has the power to declassify and destroy records at will.
“Under the statutory scheme established by the PRA, the decision to segregate personal materials from Presidential records is made by the President, during the President’s term and in his sole discretion,” noted Jackson’s decision of March 2012, a decision that was never appealed.
“Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office, it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal records,” she explained..
Source: The Republic Brief