The Search Warrant used in the Mar-a-Lago raid is not public. It was filed under seal. It’s not even clear the Trump folks have it. Both Eric Trump and a lawyer for Donald Trump have said that a copy of the warrant was not given to the people present at Mar-a-Lago.
Eric Trump revealed FBI agents refused to hand over the search warrant for their raid on Mar-a-Lago and kicked an attorney off the property in a new, incisive account of the Monday operation at the Florida estate.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the former president’s son said the 30 agents who arrived at the property asked staff to turn security cameras off – but they refused.
He also said that the attorney was forced to stand at the end of the Mar-a-Lago driveway while the team searched inside – and allegedly used safe crackers to break into his father’s safe.
He called the raid another ‘coordinated attack’ on his father Donald Trump and insisted there is no way President Joe Biden was kept in the dark about the search.
The latest explosive account comes with the Department of Justice facing mounting pressure to explain what grounds they had for the search.
Eric said that his father’s lawyer Christina Bobb was forced to stand at the end of the Mar-a-Lago driveway throughout the raid.
‘There’s 30 agents there,’ he recalled of the Monday search in a phone call with DailyMail.com. ‘They told our lawyer… you have to leave the property right now. Turn off all security cameras.’
‘They would not give her the search warrant,’ he claimed. ‘So they showed it to her from about 10 feet away. They would not give her a copy of the search warrant.’
Apparently Mar-a-Lago staff refused to turn off the security cameras. It’s unclear whether Trump lawyers have received a copy subsequent to the initial raid.
Be very suspicious of anything you hear in the media attributable to anonymous sources. The supposed leaks from unidentified persons supposedly with knowledge are either FBI/DOJ whispering in the ear of reporter-scribes which may or may not reflect reality, or people who don’t have actual knowledge, or sources who exist only in the imagination of the reporters. It’s all an unreliable web of deception.
Newsweek reports that the FBI had an inside source who told the FBI what Trump was hiding and where.
The raid on Mar-a-Lago was based largely on information from an FBI confidential human source, one who was able to identify what classified documents former President Trump was still hiding and even the location of those documents, two senior government officials told Newsweek.
Really? Is that why over two dozen agents needed an early morning raid that swept through the Trump offices and residence at Mar-a-Lago, including reportedly Melania’s wardrobe?
Judicial Watch filed a motion to unseal today:
7. All three considerations support Judicial Watch’s motion to unseal. First, Judicial Watch seeks access to the warrant materials as part of its educational mission. If the Court were to unseal the materials, Judicial Watch would obtain the materials, analyze them, and make them available to the public. Second, the public has an urgent and substantial interest in understanding the predicate for the execution of the unprecedented search warrant of the private residence of a former president and likely future political opponent. Third, no official explanation or information has been released about the search. As of the filing of this motion, the public record consists solely of speculation and inuendo. In short, the historical presumption of access to warrant materials vastly outweighs any interest the government may have in keeping the materials under seal.8. Given the political context, and the highly unusual action of executing a search warrant at the residence of a former President and likely future political opponent, it is essential that the public understands as soon as possible the basis for the government’s action. Any government interest in securing the identities of witnesses and confidential sources, if any, may be addressed by appropriate redactions from the search warrant affidavit.
Shortly after Judicial Watch’s motion, similar motions were filed by The Times Union and The New York Times.
The Times confirms my understanding of the standard practice, that search warrants are unsealed after or soon after they are executed. The reason for the seal is to prevent the target from concealing the subject matter of the warrant, but once it’s executed, there’s no reason for secrecy:
To date, despite the immense public interest in the search, the public, including The Times, has been prevented from accessing any court records related to this search warrant, including the warrant itself. Southern District of Florida practice is typically to seal search warrant matters at least until the warrant is executed, but not in perpetuity….For warrant recordsto remain under seal a court must determine, in clearly articulated findings, that the government established a specific, compelling interest justifying an ongoing seal that is no broader than necessary to serve that interest.
The Court docket as of this writing indicates the government has until August 15 to respond:
What did the feds spend so much time doing with so many people throughout Trump’s office and residence space?Whatever it was, it probably had nothing to do with retrieving records claimed by the National Archives. A lot of people are speculating the feds “planted” something that could be used against Trump. Yes, I’m naive, I don’t think that’s it.
The walls now have ears. If they didn’t already.
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