President Trump has faced unprecedented lawfare, including four indictments, two impeachments and countless lawsuits aimed at keeping him from power, confiscating his wealth and even putting him in prison for life. The most stark example? The FBI’s August 2022 raid of his Mar-a-Lago property. This week, we learned that even FBI agents did not believe there was probable cause for the sham raid.
The Fourth Amendment is fundamental to our Republic. The government cannot search or seize one’s home, office, papers or person without probable cause. Usually, authorities must obtain a search warrant prior to searching or seizing.
When the raid on Mar-a-Lago became public, lawfare opponents were horrified, for we had crossed the Rubicon. FBI agents rummaged through Trump’s personal effects and took his passport. They staged photos of folders supposedly containing classified information haphazardly strewn about and the Justice Department under then-President Biden released them to the media to cast Trump in a negative light.
The material in question consisted of records that Trump was allowed to maintain under the Presidential Records Act. A battle started between Trump and the National Archives, which wanted some of the documents. Biden’s White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su waived executive privilege, allowing the Biden Justice Department to begin an investigation. The Justice Department obtained a warrant to search for and seize the records, and Trump was indicted for allegedly unlawful retention of classified materials the following year.
The entire process was corrupt. First, the records were under Secret Service protection. Former presidents receive federal funds for secure office space so that they can maintain classified records. Former presidents, prior to Biden’s disgraceful decision to lock out Trump, were entitled to receive classified intelligence briefings. Trump allowed government officials to come to Mar-a-Lago to view the records and was opposed only to turning them over.
Second, the motive for the return of the records had nothing to do with security concerns. Trump had many records concerning Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the official name for the Obama-Clinton Russian Collusion Hoax. The 2016 campaign of Hillary Clinton cooked up the claim that Trump colluded with Russia to hack Clinton’s emails. Trump sued Clinton and the Democratic National Committee based on the Russia investigation.
Third, the warrant was a sham because the magistrate was not neutral and detached. Magistrate Judge Bruce Rinehart of the Southern District of Florida signed the warrant. Just six weeks earlier, Rinehart had recused himself from the Trump/Clinton lawsuit. The reason was obvious: Rinehart, while a civilian in 2017, had written a Facebook post viciously bashing Trump. The Biden Justice Department ran to a blatantly biased judge in order to procure the warrant.
This week, through documents released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, we learned that even agents in the FBI’s Washington Field Office did not think that probable cause existed for the raid. The involvement of the Washington Field Office itself is scandalous. The alleged crime occurred in the Southern District of Florida. Yet, Biden special counsel Jack Smith used a D.C. grand jury to obtain subpoenas. D.C. voted for Trump’s opponents at a clip of 90% or more during the last three elections. Smith also went to shamelessly leftist D.C. Chief District Judges Beryl Howell and James Boasberg to obtain favorable rulings. Smith only indicted Trump in the Southern District of Florida because he feared that a D.C. conviction would get reversed over improper venue.
Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon invalidated Smith’s appointment on constitutional grounds. Then, Trump won a decisive electoral victory last November, and Smith ended his ignominious witch hunt, fleeing back to Europe.
The lawfare waged against Trump, his aides, his supporters, and even members of Congress, most blatant during Operation Arctic Frost, where nearly a dozen senators had their phone records seized, threatened to destroy the Republic. The lawfare perpetrators failed, however, and it is time for legal accountability in the form of an indictment for conspiracy against rights pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 241.
The government searched a former president’s home without probable cause to seize records in order to protect a corrupt former presidential candidate and to end the future political prospects of Trump. And the government procured the search warrant from a biased judicial disgrace who had no business anywhere near any case involving Trump. What occurred is a stain on the judiciary and the nation. Justice must, and will, come.