10 August 2022 — 0818 mdt

Raiding Trump’s hacienda probably was
the last thing the FBI wanted to do

By James Conner

We know the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Trump’s Florida home, Mar A Lago. We don’t know what the FBI searched for or found because the FBI has neither released the warrant nor provided a list of what was seized. That has not prevented members of the mainstream news media from claiming the FBI was after presidential records that should have been turned over to the national archives when Trump left office.

Neither sitting nor former Presidents are above the law. As Justice Douglas observed during Watergate, everyone has to turn over evidence.

We can conclude, reasonably, that either the FBI conducted a reckless, utterly unnecessary search or was after bigger things than a few memoranda that should have gone to the national archives. That we can conclude because the FBI knew that serving a warrant on a former President would ignite a firestorm. Therefore, we also can conclude that serving the warrant was the last thing the FBI wanted to do.

Trump, on the other hand, may have welcomed the search because he could cite it as proof he’s being persecuted by the Deep State. Which of course is what he and his sycophants are doing, employing strident rhetoric that may endanger the safety of public officials and their families, in an attempt to obscure the legal issues with a cloud of accusations that the FBI is conducting a political persecution.

Meanwhile, today Trump is being deposed by New York’s attorney general. He will provide straight answers only by mistake.