FBI Executes Search Warrant At Trump’s Home In Mar-a-Lago (Updated)

Be still my heart! Mutiple news organizations are reporting that FBI agents have executed a search warrant ar the the former guy’s home in exile in Mar-a-Lago, including an angry diatribe from the “Mafia Don” crime boss himself whining about the FBI search.

Politico briefly reports, FBI searches Mar-a-Lago, Trump says:

The FBI has searched the Mar-a-Lago home of Donald Trump, the former president said in a statement.

“They even broke into my safe,” Trump said on Monday in a lengthy statement describing it as a “raid.”

Looking for those missing text messages from the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense? Nah, not likely to find them at Mar-a-Lago.

It appears to be related to the former guy taking boxes and boxes of classified documents with him to his home in exile in Mar-a-Lago when he left office? Attoney General Garland confirms classified material found among records taken from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago (Feb. 22, 2022). This is a crime which is rarely charged. But if he has failed to cooperate with the DOJ in the return of these documents, then maybe the DOJ decided that enough is enough, and we are coming to take the classified documents back.

UPDATE: Poliitco confirms that the search warrant is related to the boxes of classified documents: “Two sources familiar with the search said it was related to allegations that Trump allies improperly removed boxes of presidential records from the White House after leaving office — including some that may have included classified information. One of those sources said the raid took ‘hours.'”

The search warrant could also include evidence in other investigations the DOJ is working on, because they know that they are only going to get one crack at executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.

It was not immediately clear why the agents were present at Mar-a-Lago, but he said it was “under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.”

“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” he said.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s offices in Washington and for the Southern District of Florida did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

NBC News adds, Trump says his Mar-a-Lago home was ‘raided’ by ‘large group of FBI agents’:

Former President Donald Trump said in a statement Monday that his home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, was “raided” by “a large group of FBI agents.”

Trump also claimed the presence of law enforcement was unannounced and the reason was politically motivated, though he did not provide specifics.

It can’t be “unannounced” when the FBI has to notify the Secret Service detail at Mar-a-Lago. Just sayin’.

“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a lengthy email statement issued by his Save America political committee.

“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”

At Justice Department headquarters, a spokesperson declined to comment to NBC News.

Trump’s involvement in inciting the mob that ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 resulted in his second impeachment, is the subject of a House committee examining the event and is part of a federal criminal investigation.

In February, the National Archives and Records Administration asked the Justice Department to examine whether former President Donald Trump’s handling of White House records violated federal law, a story first reported by The Washington Post and subsequently confirmed by NBC News sources.

The status of that request is unclear.

Trump is currently not at Mar-a-Lago, his winter residence. He spends his summers at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

UPDATE: NBC News confirms that the FBI gave the Secret Service a heads up and negotiated the search of Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, as one would expect: “Just hours before agents searched Trump’s residence on Monday, the FBI notified the Secret Service about the bureau’s plans to execute the warrant, according to a Secret Service official. The Secret Service facilitated access to the property, the official said, but did not participate in any aspect of the search.”

The former guy in a statement Monday said his Mar-a-Lago resort has been raided by FBI agents. He has not, as yet, called out his mob of MAGA/QAnon cultists to attack the “deep state.” “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” We should expect utter insanity from his personality cult, and possibly new acts of domestic terrorism.

It is unprecedented that a former president’s home is the subject of an FBI search warrant. It would be a very high bar of evidence submitted to the judge to establish probable cause for a search warrant.

A search warrant is signed by a “neutral and detached” magistrate or judge, authorizing a law enforcement officer to conduct a search on a certain person, a specified place, for criminal evidence.

Probable cause exists when there is a fair probability that a search will result in evidence of a crime being discovered. In the case of a warrant search, an affidavit or recorded testimony must support the warrant by indicating on what basis probable cause exists.

A judge may issue a search warrant if the affidavit in support of the warrant offers sufficient credible information to establish probable cause. There is a presumption that police officers are reliable sources of information, and affidavits in support of a warrant will often include their observations. When this is the case, the officers’ experience and training become relevant factors in assessing the existence of probable cause.

Earlier today Axios confirmed earlier reporting that Donald Trump flushed documents down the toilet. Exclusive photos: Trump’s telltale toilet:

Remember our toilet scoop in Axios AM earlier this year? Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming book about former President Trump will report that White House residence staff periodically found wads of paper clogging a toilet — and believed the former president, a notorious destroyer of Oval Office documents, was the flusher.

Destroying records that should be preserved is potentially illegal.

Trump denied it and called Haberman, whose New York Times coverage he follows compulsively, a “maggot.”

Well, it turns out there are photos. And here they are, published for the first time.

Haberman — who obtained the photos recently — shared them with us ahead of the Oct. 4 publication of her book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”

(A Trump White House source tells her the photo on the left shows a commode in the White House. The photo on the right is from an overseas trip, according to the source.

This is a breaking news story.

UPDATE:

Some of those questions could be answered if Trump released the search warrant as well as the inventory of items seized, which his team presumably has. https://t.co/eg92jceIrz

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) August 9, 2022

Steve Benen reports, After Mar-a-Lago search, Trump challenged to ‘release the warrant’:

Neal Katyal, the former acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, is aware of the Republican pushback against the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago. On MSNBC today, the Supreme Court lawyer responded with a challenge to the former president:

“Donald Trump, you have a copy of the warrant. It explains what they were looking for, what statutes they think were violated, and what judge signed off on that. Release the warrant. You called on [Barack] Obama to release the birth certificate and all sorts of nonsense. If you believe this is such an abuse, let us see the warrant and let us decide for ourselves.”

“Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, pushed a similar line soon after. “Donald Trump has a copy of the search warrant,” the California congressman said via Twitter. “He’d show us the warrant if he were so wronged. Show it or shut it.”

To be sure, there are some Republicans pushing the FBI and the Justice Department to also release the warrant, which seems unlikely. Not only are there protocols in place to protect the rights of those facing federal law enforcement scrutiny, but such disclosures could conceivably interfere with an ongoing investigation. What’s more, there’s no reason to think the judge who signed off on the warrant would share such materials with the public.

But the FBI, the Justice Department and the judiciary aren’t the only ones with access to the search warrant. Trump and his lawyers have it, too.

The former president and his team are certainly under no obligation to release the documents to the press or the public. Indeed, it would be unusual for someone in this situation to make such a disclosure.

But Trump’s allies and followers appear to be working from a certain assumption: Federal law enforcement, they’ve claimed, “raided” the home of a former president for illegitimate reasons as part of an outrageous abuse of power. Team Trump could very well bolster those assumptions by releasing the search warrant that was executed yesterday, shedding light on the investigation and its direction.

If the basis for the warrant were flimsy, disclosing it would prove Republicans right. If the rationale for the search lacked merit, releasing the warrant would help on this front, too.

And who knows, maybe this will actually happen. Maybe Team Trump will hear this chatter, accept the challenge, release the warrant, and we’ll all see evidence that paints federal law enforcement in a scandalous new light.

Or maybe Team Trump would prefer that the public not see the search warrant, creating uncertainty and allowing Republicans to push conspiracy theories without proof.