A baseball bat and cocktail napkin are among items taken by FBI agents from Mar-A-Lago according to records and video.
The heavy-handed raid is uniting those on the left and right concerning government overreach and possible politicization of the Department of Justice.
The Biden administration’s raid on President Trump’s home is an outrageous, reckless, and unprecedented abuse of power. And the American people have an urgent right to know how it happened and who is responsible,” says Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
The raid on Trump’s is in connection to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978, which established that all records of the president are owned by the public. Upon a president’s exit from the White House, these records are to be transferred into the custody of the National Archives.
The heavy-handed raid, which legal experts say was unnecessary, included rifling through the drawers of former First Lady Melania Trump, the pool house and the bedroom of Barron Trump, according to over 9 1/2 hours of video taken at the scene by Mar-A-Lago staff and Trump’s lawyers.
Items recovered in the raid, which some political observers say has created a serious constitutional crisis because Trump will likely face Joe Biden in 2024, includes notes from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and even a cocktail napkin. Also taken from the home is a personal letter from former President Barack Obama to Trump, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
A list of the unclassified items found in the boxes was about 100 pages long — and included the cocktail napkin and a birthday dinner menu, according to a Washington Post.
Hardly stuff that is classified say critics of the Biden administration and National Archives.
But it is how the raid occurred that has the American public and constitutional scholars woried. Those were oulined in Judicial Watch’s Aug. 9 press release and mirror reaction of Republican leaders and even some Democrats.
Judicial Watch then filed a motion in federal court to unseal documents related to the search warrant executed this week at the Florida home of former President Donald Trump.
The nonprofit Judicial Watch, in a motion filed at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, said that the court should unseal the warrant materials because 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.”
The nonprofit also said that it was investigating the “potential politicization” of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI and that the unsealing of the materials would help its mission of educating the public.
Once the court allows the unsealing of the materials, Judicial Watch will be able to analyze it and make it available to the public, according to the organization. The government has provided “no official explanation or information” regarding the search, it noted.
The FBI’s application for a warrant, approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart who it has been revealed donated thousands to Obama and Biden, was placed under seal by the judge in addition to an affidavit outlining why a warrant was needed. The materials remained under seal early Aug. 10.
The image of FBI agents possibly rummaging through Melania’s underwear drawers has further weakened the public’s trust in the FBI, which in 2021 year labeled concerned school parents domestic terrorists.
In an Aug. 9 Twitter post, Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman and a critic of Trump, said that he has “heard from so many GOP voters tonight who were cooling a bit these past few months on Trump but who are so [expletive] about this raid and are back to completely & enthusiastically all in with their support for him.”
Former Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang pointed out that a “fundamental part” of Trump’s appeal lies in the view that he is against a “corrupt government establishment.”
The FBI raid of Trump’s home will mostly be seen as “unjust persecution” by millions of Americans, he said.
–Wire services and Metro Voice