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America First Patriots are suing Judge Bruce Reinhart for approving the raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, claiming that he was prejudicial in his decision.
In their motion, The Tea Party Patriots Action claims that there exists a “clear conflict of interest” when the IRS commissioner resides in the same eight-block stretch as representatives of both political parties.
According to the lawsuit, Judge Reinhart had previously made political contributions to the organization leading the raid — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The lawsuit also notes that CREW has been critical of President Donald Trump before, during, and after his presidency, and that its co-founder is now working for the Biden administration — who remains a leading oppositional figure to President Donald Trump.
The Tea Party Patriots argue that these facts create a clear conflict of interest that should have disqualified Judge Reinhart from approving the raid.
They are asking the court to remove him from the case and to issue an injunction prohibiting any further action in the case until a new judge can be appointed.
This is not the first time that the Tea Party Patriots have taken legal action against what they perceive as judicial overreach. In 2012, they filed a lawsuit against then-Attorney General Eric Holder over the Fast and Furious scandal.
And in 2017, they unsuccessfully sued to stop the Mueller investigation.
The Lawsuit:
“Reinhart has a conflict of interest and a pattern and history of hostility to President Trump, which is supported by the following undisputed facts.
“Judge Reinhart is a Democrat who has given financial contributions to former Democratic President Barack Obama, and to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush when he was a candidate running against Donald Trump for President in 2015.”
“Judge Reinhart is a partisan and has publicly expressed his partisan views against former President Trump. His antipathy for the former President is such that he should have recused when presented with the search warrant for the highly problematic search of President Trump’s home in Florida…
“Judge Reinhart should be disciplined and removed as a federal magistrate because of his failure to meet the standards of ethical conduct and character necessary for the public to have confidence in the nonpartisan role of a judge in a matter of this extreme public interest.”
The suit, filed in federal court on Tuesday, alleges that Judge Royce Lamberth violated the Constitution when he approved the warrant for the FBI to search the resort.
The Tea Party Patriots are represented by attorney Larry Klayman, who has filed a similar lawsuit against FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Klayman added that the judge’s “bias and prejudice” against Trump “compromised his ability to impartially review and sign off on the warrant.”
The lawsuit is seeking to have Lamberth removed from the case and for the warrant to be declared invalid.
It remains to be seen whether their latest lawsuit will be more successful. But one thing is clear — the Tea Party Patriots are not afraid to take on the establishment, even when it means taking on a judge.
