Disclaimer: This article may contain opinion and viewpoint of the author.
Unless shipwrecked on a remote island or on a journey of self-discovery in the remote wilderness of the Alaskan Tongass Forest, you know the week’s biggest news story. President Trump’s Florida home was raided by the FBI.
In the early morning of Monday, August 8th, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at the former President’s Mar a Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida. It was an unprecedented action by the United States Justice Department.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart of the Southern Florida District signed the search warrant. Everyone has seen television shows where warrants are executed. The law enforcement officer always hands the paper to the person whose residence they are searching.
A search warrant is an official legal document that gives law enforcement officers the right to search a pre-determined location. The location is stated and defined within the document. It also includes that which the officers are looking for has to be clearly articulated in the warrant.
A search warrant is not an easy document to get signed by a magistrate. An office submits an affidavit to the judge and has to provide enough evidence to show enough probable cause that illegal activities are happening at a specific place.
Once the judge reviews the details, he or she must agree that there is enough probable cause. The judge then issues the search warrant to the officer. The majority of Judges across the United States used to be very apprehensive about issuing search warrants.
They wanted to see exigent circumstances and facts before signing on the dotted line. During my time in law enforcement, I submitted fourteen different affidavits to District Court Judges. One of those search warrants was signed.
One of the exigent circumstances is the belief that the evidence law enforcement is looking for is in immediate danger of being destroyed. It can be burned, flushed, shredded, liquified, or even ingested. The threat of its destruction stresses the immediate need for the warrant to be signed and executed.
Exigency is one of the problems with the warrant signed by Judge Reinhart. The actual warrant was signed on Aug. 5, 2022, at 12:12 p.m. Three days before the Justice Department and FBI conducted the raid to execute it.
The search of locations during the raid was controversial. Officers are allowed to search anyplace their evidence may be, anything in plain sight that is illegal, and search places where someone could be hiding to protect themselves.
In the case of searching for documents, that can mean just about anywhere a piece of paper can be hidden. It’s a wide swath of locations. The search warrant is purposely vague. A judge would have turned an affidavit away for such a request.
There were no exigent circumstances forcing the FBI to act immediately to preserve the evidence before being destroyed. They claimed whatever documents they were searching for were of vital interest to national security. However, they waited three days.
Even stranger is that Reinhart gave the FBI until the 19th of August to execute the search warrant. He didn’t think there was an immediate need to secure whatever documents they described in the affidavit.
The warrant and the receipt of evidence obtained in the search are available to read. The affidavit has not. The items listed in the receipt are generalized and vague. The details are below.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
RECEIPT FOR PROPERTY
Description of Item(s):
1 – Executive Grant of Clemency re: Roger Jason Stone, Jr.
1A – Info re: President of France
2 – Leatherbound box of documents
2A – Various classified/TS/SCI documents
3 – Potential Presidential Record
5 – Binder of photos
6 – Binder of photos
7 – Handwritten note
8 – Box labeled A-1
9 – Box labeled A-12
10 – Box Labeled A-15
10A – Miscellaneous Secret Documents
11 – Box Labeled A-16
11A – Miscellanous Top Secret Documents
12 – Box labeled A-17
13 – Box labeled A-18
13A – Miscellaneous Top Secret Documents
14 – Box labeled A-27
14A – Miscellaneous Confidential Documents
There have been argument on both side of the political spectrum about the legitimacy of the warrant. Whether or not you believe it was politically motivated, the facts of the warrant question it’s legitimacy. Perhaps it was to wait for Trump to go to NY or maybe cover up the Inflation and Tax Increasing Act.
