FBI search at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was intended to locate classified material illegally removed from the White House that was not turned over despite months of demands.
The execution of a search warrant on a former president’s home is unprecedented and it shows that the Justice Department is investigating illegal handling of classified material as well as the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and related attempts to deprive Joe Biden of his 2020 election victory, along with other criminal actions by Trump.
The “coup memo” prepared by John Eastman, advancing the fringe legal theory that the Vice President has unilateral authority to reject certified electors, effectively nullifying the Electoral College and overturning Biden’s victory, so that Trump could retain power.
“To have taken such a drastic step, the Department of Justice must have been convinced that there was evidence of criminal conduct sufficient to persuade a federal judge to sign a search warrant,” said Joseph A. Hayden, Jr., the New Jersey criminal defense lawyer who has tried cases that attracted national and regional media coverage. “As legal commentators have uniformly mentioned, such a search warrant application would have undoubtedly been approved by Attorney General Garland himself.”
“Trump is in VERY deep legal trouble. This Search Warrant affidavit likely has been through a four-week review and is over 200 pages,” said Gene Rossi, who as a federal prosecutor had more than 110 trials. “Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41, Trump is entitled to a copy of three judge-approved search warrant documents: the one-page search warrant; the list of items to be seized; and the list of items seized. The long & detailed agent affidavit is likely sealed.”
Public evidence is mounting on the allegations that Donald Trump and his confederates committed seditious conspiracy, obstruction of justice, fraud and criminal conspiracy nd there are reports that the failed coup attempt is the subject of a federal grand jury.
While the National Archives obtained 15 boxes of documents that were illegally taken by Trump, some speculate that the material that was retrieved by the FBI raid includes notes and other documents showing evidence of crimes related to the failed coup d’etat.
Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney ordered former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to appear for grand jury testimony on Aug. 17.
Republicans say Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis “is engaged in a fishing expedition” with the special grand jury investigation of a Jan. 2, 2021 phone call between Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The Washington Post first reported on the contents of the call and published the audio in which Trump said, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
“It’s a crime to solicit election fraud, and asking the secretary to change the votes is a textbook definition of election fraud,” said David J. Worley, an Atlanta lawyer who serves on Georgia’s state election board.
Giuliani had been ordered to appear to testify Tuesday before Fulton County’s special grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election
Undeterred, Trump and the Republican fascist movement are escalating their attempts to end American democracy with the goal of creating a new Christian fascist plutocracy that will rule unopposed through apartheid and oppression.
The latest Monmouth University Poll suggests that the House January 6th Committee hearings have not moved American public opinion to recognize that Trump bears direct responsibility for what happened at the U.S. Capitol last year.
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