Mar-a-Lago

2022 - 8 - 9

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Image courtesy of "New York Magazine"

What's in Trump's Safe the FBI Raided? (New York Magazine)

What's in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Safe? Olivia Nuzzi speaks to former aides about what could be in the vault at Trump's Florida resort.

“He comes down and he goes, ‘Shit, I have to go to the safe,’” this person said. And: “He didn’t even have anything in the safe!” Before Trump says “grab ’em by the pussy,” he talks about the mints: “I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. “We were talking about him running for president, and he was saying he was serious,” this person said. “Hey,” Cohen said. The former staffer, who said Trump always carried cash, assumed the safe had ten times the amount in the shopping bag at any given time. “Lower than 24,” Cohen said. You can do anything.” “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” he said, adding that, after “cooperating” with all relevant agencies, the “unannounced raid” was proof of “prosecutorial misconduct” from a criminal-justice system weaponized by his political enemies. It was just, well, a safe that belonged to Donald Trump. It was hard to miss, even if it didn’t seem all that significant. “Can I call you back?” When Donald Trump announced Monday that the FBI had raided Mar-a-Lago, looking for classified materials taken from the White House to the Florida estate and private club where he claims his legal residence, he mentioned as an aside the matter of a safe.

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The FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid has no precedent in US history (Quartz)

On. Monicah Mwangi. <b>A supporter of Kenya's opposition leader and presidential candidate Raila Odinga of the Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) One Kenya ...

Citing an “abundance of caution,” the US embassy in Kenya has issued a security alert for Kisumu, the hometown of presidential hopeful Odinga, warning staff to avoid the area. Voters want solutions to the rising cost of living and corruption issues. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Sofia Lotto Persio, Julia Malleck, and Morgan Haefner. If you’re a fan of Quartz (we’ve got an inkling you are), help us understand what you like most about our stories and analysis. A blaze started by a lightning strike injured dozens, killed at least one person, and further strained the island’s energy supplies. US regulators withdrew PredictIt’s license to operate.

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Image courtesy of "Newsweek"

Flag-Waving Trump Supporters Protest Outside Mar-a-Lago After ... (Newsweek)

Trump supporters waved flags reading "Trump 2024" and "Biden Is Not My President" after the raid.

This is not some rando move by the FBI." Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago when the raid took place, and is reported to have been at Trump Tower in New York. It was also condemned by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who tweeted: "The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime's political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. The raid sparked fury among Trump supporters, some of whom called for the FBI to be disbanded. Dozens of furious Donald Trump supporters gathered around Mar-a-Lago on Monday to protest the FBI raid on the former president's Florida home.

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Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

Trump investigation live updates: Trump claims political persecution ... (The Washington Post)

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) threatened to investigate the Justice Department if the GOP takes control of the chamber next year.

The inventory of unclassified items in the boxes that were recovered earlier this year from Mar-a-Lago is roughly 100 pages long, according to a person familiar with that document. At the time, Ferriero said in a statement that Trump representatives were “continuing to search” for additional records. That could be a violation of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.

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Image courtesy of "WPBF West Palm Beach"

Crowds gather for second day on Palm Beach after FBI searches ... (WPBF West Palm Beach)

Supporters and opponents of former President Donald Trump began to gather near his Palm Beach resort for a second day Tuesday after hearing the FBI had ...

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Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

Trump Says F.B.I. Raided His Mar-a-Lago Home in Florida: Live ... (The New York Times)

The former president said that Mar-a-Lago had been “raided” and that authorities had even broken into a safe.

The National Archives discovered in January that at the end of his term, former President Donald J. Trump had taken to his home at the Mar-a-Lago resort 15 boxes from the White House that contained government documents, mementos, gifts and letters. It was one of a series of requests that the Justice Department had made to the agency for records from the Trump administration, the two people said. They began a grand jury investigation and issued a subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration for the boxes, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. During campaign rallies and speeches this year, Mr. Trump has continued to use the 2020 election as a political cudgel. McCarthy, who has refused a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee, said the Justice Department had “reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization” and pledged to investigate if Republicans retook the House in the 2022 midterm elections. A federal judge or magistrate must approve of the request, and jurists often demand highly specific limitations on the search to protect a person’s Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure before granting a warrant. In one prominent example of how he dealt with classified material, Mr. Trump in 2019 took a highly classified spy satellite image of an Iranian missile launch site, declassified it and then released the photo on Twitter. Earlier on Monday, federal prosecutors emphatically rejected a request by John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who had advised former President Trump of options to block congressional certification of the 2020 election, to return his cell phone. In January of this year, the archives retrieved 15 boxes that Mr. Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago from the White House residence when his term ended. At least one of the agents was involved in counterintelligence, according to the person. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader in the House, suggested that he intended to investigate Attorney General Merrick B. Garland if Republicans took control of the House in November. The former president called the search an “assault” and complained that authorities had broken into a safe.

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Image courtesy of "CBS News"

Trump says Mar-a-Lago was "raided" as FBI executes search warrant (CBS News)

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that Mar-a-Lago, the Florida club that is his primary residence, is "currently under siege, raided, and occupied ...

Sources tell CBS News the search is connected to a Justice Department investigation of claims by the National Archives that it found 15 boxes of records including classified material at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted a statement Monday night saying that if the Republicans take back the House in November, "we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts and leave no stone unturned." He has been active in holding rallies for his endorsed candidates in the 2022 midterm primaries. The National Archives said some of the documents Trump turned over to them had been ripped up and taped back together. Trump said, "they even broke into my safe!" "After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate."

The FBI conducted a search at ex-President Trump's Mar-a-Lago ... (WJCT NEWS)

Trump announced the news himself — calling the FBI action unnecessary and attacking it as politically motivated — even though he appointed the FBI director, ...

This is a monumental step for a Justice Department that's been really careful throughout the administration. At the time, a former prosecutor told me it would have been a gross departure for DOJ not to investigate here. So what has the Justice Department said about the classified documents this year? MARTINEZ: It sounds like a pretty big step for federal agents to search the residence of a former president. Now, it's not a slam dunk that someone will eventually face criminal charges, but this is a very serious action from the Justice Department, a step they would not have taken lightly. CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: We know that FBI agents conducted a search at Trump's property in Florida yesterday morning, but the public didn't find out about it until Trump issued a statement last night.

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Image courtesy of "PBS NewsHour"

FBI searches Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate (PBS NewsHour)

The search intensifies the months-long probe into how classified documents ended up in boxes of White House records located at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, said in a statement on Twitter that it was “an escalation in the weaponization” of U.S. government agencies. That Trump would become entangled in a probe into the handling of classified information is all the more striking given how he tried during the 2016 presidential election to exploit an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over whether she mishandled classified information via a private email server she used as secretary of state. Trump lambasted that decision and then stepped up his criticism of the FBI as agents began investigating whether his campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the 2016 election. There are multiple federal laws governing the handling of classified records and sensitive government documents, including statutes that make it a crime to remove such material and retain it at an unauthorized location. Agents were also looking to see if Trump had additional presidential records or any classified documents at the estate. The National Archives said Trump should have turned over that material upon leaving office, and it asked the Justice Department to investigate. The search intensifies the months-long probe into how classified documents ended up in boxes of White House records located at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. “My father always kept press clippings,” Eric Trump said. “This is different and it is a sign of how unique the Trump period was,” said Schwartz, author of “Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography.” “How his behavior was so unusual.” Familiar battle lines, forged during a a four-year presidency shadowed by FBI and congressional investigations, quickly took shape again Monday night. Trump has previously maintained that presidential records were turned over “in an ordinary and routine process.” His son Eric said on Fox News on Monday night that he had spent the day with his father and that the search happened because “the National Archives wanted to corroborate whether or not Donald Trump had any documents in his possession.” Trump and his allies sought to cast the search as a weaponization of the criminal justice system and a Democratic-driven effort to keep him from winning another term in 2024 — even though the Biden White House said it had no prior knowledge of it, and the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, was appointed by Trump five years ago and served as a high-ranking official in a Republican-led Justice Department.

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Image courtesy of "The New Yorker"

What the F.B.I.'s Raid of Mar-a-Lago Could Mean for Trump (The New Yorker)

Police direct traffic outside an entrance to former President Donald Trumps MaraLago estate. The F.B.I.'s search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence may ...

The current Attorney General said very clearly in his interview with Lester Holt that anybody who commits a crime is subject to the laws of this country, up to and including a former President. In terms of evaluating this on the merits, I am confident that Merrick Garland will judge it the way he would anything else. But a judge might say, “What makes you think it is still in that location?” This is speculation, but you would think that there has to be at least one source who gave the F.B.I. information about what was there fairly recently, and that whatever they were looking for was in that location. But what the court would weigh in on is the following: in order to issue a search warrant—unlike a subpoena, where you don’t need any factual predication—there has to be a determination by a judge that there is probable cause of a crime, and that the evidence of that crime will be in the location that you seek to search. But, if that’s all it was, it seems possibly extreme to have that concern lead to the search of a former President’s home. Yes. One of the requirements for the search warrant is evidence that the information will be there during the two-week period that the F.B.I. is authorized to do a search—the information is not “stale.” And that’s the term of art that people talk about. What are the issues that go along with investigating a former President? Are the standards different? In the past six or seven years, we have learned that the government sometimes cares a lot about the handling of classified material. You use a search warrant, and not a subpoena, when you don’t believe that the person is actually going to comply. If he produced those pursuant to a subpoena, that would be incriminating himself, because it would show that he had them and knew where they were. Almost any time that the government is trying to get documents from a corporation, they do it by issuing a subpoena, or even by informal request. When you say he wouldn’t comply, do you mean that he wouldn’t recognize the relevant legal authority? To understand what the search might signal, I spoke by phone with Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor and F.B.I. general counsel who worked on the Mueller investigation.

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Image courtesy of "USA TODAY"

Ex-Bush AG Gonzales says Mar-a-Lago search likely had approval ... (USA TODAY)

The FBI Agents Association defended the agency's work against GOP claims that its search of Donald Trump's home were politically motivated.

Not even the president of the United States. Not even a former president of the United States." "Using the criminal justice system in this manner is un-American." What has been done to obtain the information short of a search? Also from the Monmouth poll, a combined 40% of Americans said they definitely or probably would vote for Trump if he ran for president again in 2024. No such order was issues, but a federal appeals court ultimately ruled that the search to be unconstitutional. “Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice should already have provided answers to the American people and must do so immediately.” Law enforcement leaves a copy of the search warrant, which itemizes what they are looking for and what laws were violated,” Katyal said in a tweet. Perry has been linked to Trump’s efforts to overturn election results in Georgia and also asked for a presidential pardon, according to testimony during the Jan. 6 hearings. Banks later told Fox News that he had never seen Trump "as fired up as what he was tonight," and that members encouraged him to again seek the presidency. “No one at the White House was given a heads up.” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, tweeted out a photo of Trump and his guests with their thumbs up. And the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot concluded its first round of hearings last month.

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Image courtesy of "Politico"

Christie calls Mar-a-Lago search 'fair game' (Politico)

“It's fair game,” the former governor said. “It's not anything that's out of bounds to go into a safe, and it happens frequently in federal law enforcement. But ...

“It has to be something of incredible magnitude for, at least, my side of the aisle to say that was warranted,” Scott said. But again, you have to have the factual underpinnings to be able to convince a federal judge that you need and have the right to do that.” If nothing was found, the search would be “unjust,” he said. “It’s fair game,” the former governor said. And that’s not good for anybody,” he said. “Just talking to people now, they are irate, and they are ready to support Trump. Even some people who were not full Trumpers, but are so upset with what happened [FBI search]. It seems this is really going to elevate Trump.” “I had gotten calls from people last night that were getting kind of tired of Trump, not so much they wanted to move on from him, but more that they were sick of the drama. “What happened at Mar-a-Lago to a former president is unfounded,” he said in an interview. In private, Trump allies fumed over his more measured approach, and on Twitter, Trump fans said it could have taken him out of the running to be Trump’s vice president. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) released a series of tweets and videos comparing the move to what would happen in “third world Marxist dictatorships.” Rubio’s comments particularly resonate with Florida’s Hispanic voters — many who fled communist regimes in Cuba or Venezuela. “American’s will view this as an aggressive escalation of Democrats’ move toward silencing political opponents,” he said. And Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told CBS This Morning that Americans need to let the situation “play out” and see what happens, though he also said it will raise questions about political motivation for the FBI’s action.

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Image courtesy of "Fox News"

Trump FBI raid: Agents seize Mar-a-Lago documents in ... (Fox News)

Former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was raided Monday morning by the FBI after executing a search warrant. Documents were seized as ...

“Last night’s raid on the home of a former U.S. president without explanation will only further erode confidence in the FBI and the Justice Department.” The American people deserve to know all the facts as soon as possible, and I call on the Biden administration to release—at a minimum—the documents authorizing the FBI search.” Former President Trump on Tuesday continued to excoriate 'Radical Left' Democrats after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence. "What you saw last night at Mar-a-Lago was the desperation of a national machine that knows it's on the edge of being defeated and then being eliminated. Trump announced the news in a dramatic statement on Monday, declaring his home was "under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents." Everyone. The receptionist in the FBI office who took a call on this should be fired," he concluded. He said that the raid either had to do with a legitimate investigation or, he continued, it was a "political hit job." That search was a premises located in Florida belonging to the former president." "That search was a premises located in Florida belonging to the former president." Much of it is from critics and pundits on the outside who don’t know what we know and don’t see what we see," Wray said. Garland said he personally signed off on the search warrant for the raid, and that the Justice Department aims to make more information about it public. "On or before 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on August 12, 2022, the United States shall file a certificate of conferral advising whether former President Trump opposes the Government's motion to unseal."

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Image courtesy of "NPR"

Backers turn up at Mar-a-Lago to show support for Donald Trump ... (NPR)

Undeterred by the Mar-a-Lago raid, supporters rally for Trump. People were showing up to show support for the former president and criticize the FBI raid.

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Republicans rush to Trump's defense after FBI executes search ... (CNN)

Top congressional Republicans are rushing to former President Donald Trump's defense after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago resort in ...

"Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice should already have provided answers to the American people and must do so immediately." South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said, "President Trump is likely going to run again in 2024," and noted the midterm elections are in less than 100 days away. The FBI search also quickly became a talking point in the Florida gubernatorial race. found that a majority of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters do not want Trump to be their party's nominee in the 2024 presidential election. And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the chair of the House Oversight Committee investigating Trump's handling of documents, called on the Justice Department to "fully investigate" the former president's handling of information. Christoper Wray must be removed.

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Here's what's next for Trump after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago ... (CNN)

The FBI search of former President Donald Trump's residence in Florida on Monday signaled an extraordinary escalation of an investigation into the handling ...

"But the law only, and properly, requires a neutral magistrate judge to find probable cause to search for and seize any electronic devices on his person; it does not require that the person searched know the basis for the warrant." The search was executed two months after the previously unreported June 3 meeting between DOJ investigators and Trump's attorneys at the resort. There are other record retention statutes that bring with them criminal penalties -- such as the Espionage Act -- but at this point it's not clear what criminal statutes have been implicated in the Justice Department investigation. Just last week, the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit There are other federal laws that aim prevent the tampering of information during an investigation. What exactly the FBI was searching for and why is still unknown.

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Mystery at Mar-a-Lago: What were FBI agents looking for and what ... (NPR)

A federal search warrant like the kind carried out at the home of former President Donald Trump would require detailed evidence and sign-off at the highest ...

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Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

Mar-a-Lago search appears focused on whether Trump, aides ... (The Washington Post)

The FBI sought a search warrant after Archives officials pressed Trump's circle to return what they believed was government property, according to people ...

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Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

The History of Trump's Mar-a-Lago (The New York Times)

Mar-a-Lago, the opulent 20-acre private club and residence at the center of Palm Beach, Fla., was purchased by Donald J. Trump in 1985.

Mr. Trump declared Mar-a-Lago his permanent residence in 2019. The club promises “the highest privileges and an elite lifestyle,” reserved for 500 members, who pay a $200,000 membership fee and $14,000 annual dues. Four years later, Mr. Trump bought it, paying less than $10 million for the estate and its furnishings, a small fraction of the original cost. The roof is constructed of approximately 20,000 Cuban roofing tiles. Ms. Post created the estate as a vacation home. Mar-a-Lago, the opulent 20-acre private club and residence at the center of Palm Beach, Fla., was purchased by Donald J. Trump in 1985.

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Image courtesy of "Politico"

Biden had no advance notice on Mar-a-Lago search, White House ... (Politico)

An entranceway to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. The FBI searched Donald Trump's Florida estate on Monday as part ...

House Republicans have also denounced the FBI’s actions. No one at the White House was given a heads-up,” Jean-Pierre said. House Democrats have applauded the search as a step toward accountability for the former president.

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Federal agents took about a dozen boxes from Mar-a-Lago, Trump ... (Politico)

Christina Bobb also said that Florida magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart signed off on the warrant that allowed FBI agents to search the former president's ...

The search of Trump’s expansive residence took hours on Monday. The former president was not at Mar-a-Lago during the search but at Trump Tower in New York, POLITICO reported. His lawyers likely have a copy of the search warrant, though they won’t have access to the affidavit or other documents that are typically kept confidential until the case is resolved. The former president has called the search unprecedented and politically motivated. Trump lawyer Christina Bobb fleshed out other details surrounding the case. Trump is likely best positioned to provide the details his allies are asking for. His son Eric Trump informed him of the FBI’s search of his property.

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Image courtesy of "Fox News"

FBI would not let Trump attorneys in rooms as agents raided Mar-a ... (Fox News)

The FBI prevented Trump attorneys from watching as it raided former President Trump's private home at Mar-a-Lago, a source familiar with the raid told Fox ...

"After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate," Trump said. "It was all provided to them," the source said. "These disgusting actions by Joe Biden's administration would make a third-world dictator blush. They took boxes and documents to go through them later. They told them to leave." A separate source familiar with the raid told Fox News agents brought a "safe cracker" and cracked a "relatively new" safe in Mar-a-Lago but found "nothing in it."

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Image courtesy of "CNN"

FBI search of Mar-a-Lago came after suspicions of withheld ... (CNN)

Donald Trump faces intensifying legal and political pressure after FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on August 9, 2022.

Legal analysts say the declassification procedure is a bit of a gray area when it comes to the president and producing proof. It was the first time in American history For months, investigators had been looking into how Trump handled material taken with him when he left the White House after the National Archives referred the case to the Justice Department earlier this year. "The president has wide latitude to declassify, and there's no strict, formal procedure that must be followed," CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said. on some of the details of the search. . The search warrant pertained to both the handling of classified documents and the Presidential Records Act.

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Image courtesy of "Axios"

FBI removed about a dozen boxes from Mar-a-Lago, Trump lawyer ... (Axios)

The warrant showed that agents were investigating possible violations of laws regarding the handling of classified material.

Worth noting: Federal prosecutors launched a grand jury investigation into whether Trump mishandled White House records by bringing the boxes to his estate after the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) retrieved boxes containing information from Trump's time at the White House. - Trump's legal team had engaged in discussions with the Department of Justice in the spring, Bobb said in a separate interview with the Post. At the time, his lawyers turned over several documents that could be considered presidential records after searching two to three dozen boxes of materials, she noted. That means the Justice Department — which is engaged in multiple investigations into Trump and his allies — has probable cause that a crime was committed and that evidence exists at Mar-a-Lago. Driving the news: The FBI on Monday executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in a move that appeared to mark a dramatic escalation in the investigation into his handling of presidential documents. What she's saying: Christina Bobb, a lawyer for Trump who has hosted shows for the far-right network One America News Network (OAN), said in a podcast interview Tuesday that she arrived on the scene after the FBI began the search and alleged that law enforcement personnel initially refused to show her the search warrant. A lawyer for former President Trump said Tuesday that the FBI removed about a dozen boxes held at Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Post reports.

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Image courtesy of "KTVH"

Montana congressional delegation reacts to FBI search of Mar-a-Lago (KTVH)

Montana's congressional delegation has provided their initial reactions to the news of the FBI searching and seizing documents from the home of former ...

Federal magistrate judges are appointed by a majority vote of the active district judges of the court. The unprecedented raid, however, will only strengthen the Republican base, and it will bring a larger red wave in November.” In January 2022, former President Trump turned over 15 boxes of records the National Archives had requested to be returned, so what was the FBI searching for? The FBI raid was confirmed by Trump on Monday in a press release. It is also disturbing to learn that the Florida judge who signed off on this warrant also had ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Under what probable cause was the warrant granted? "Nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States before," he said.

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