Mar-A-Lago Raid Warrant Likely Had No Legal Basis And Biden Admin Lied About Being Involved

My favorite joke used to be, “What’s the difference between a dangerous right-wing conspiracy theory and the truth? About 12 months.” But then I had to change the punchline to “About 6-12 months” because the timeframe for “dangerous right-wing conspiracy theories” to be proven true was shortening. A few weeks ago I told the joke and the punch line had to be “about 2-3 months.” Now, it’s down to mere weeks.

It’s been 2 weeks since the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in a probe regarding the potential unlawful removal of classified records when he left office. Now the media is admitting that there was likely no legal basis for the warrant that permitted that raid. According to the Wall Street Journal,

“The warrant authorized the FBI to seize ‘all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§793, 2071, or 1519′ (emphasis added). These three criminal statutes all address the possession and handling of materials that contain national-security information, public records or material relevant to an investigation or other matters properly before a federal agency or the courts. “

But, according to the Presidential Records Act, which trumps these three criminal statutes, President Trump likely did not illegally possess anything that violated these statutes. Of course, we have yet to see the affidavit, which will be heavily redacted if it’s ever released. But as for the warrant, that appears to have no legal basis.

Not only was there likely no legal basis for the Mar-a-Lago raid warrant, but the Biden Administration lied about their involvement in the FBI records probe. Well, for the sake of clarity, I guess it’s possible that Joe Biden himself really didn’t know it was happening because Joe Biden doesn’t have the faintest clue what’s ever going on. He just does whatever his handlers tell him to do. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t informed or involved, or that the White House and Administration weren’t intricately involved in the whole thing. In fact, we now KNOW that Biden and the White House WERE involved. They legally HAD to be. According to a newly-surfaced government letter from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), The Justice Department had to make a request to the Biden White House to allow the FBI and intelligence community to “examine hundreds of pages of classified documents former President Trump turned over to the NARA” at the beginning of the year.

Debra Wall, acting head of the NARA, wrote a letter to former President Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran on May 10th which revealed a lengthy negotiation between federal officials and the Trump legal team regarding whether the justice and intelligence officials were allowed to conduct a national security review or whether certain materials were shielded by executive privilege.

“NARA identified items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials. NARA informed the Department of Justice about that discovery, which prompted the Department to ask the President to request that NARA provide the FBI with access to the boxes at issue so that the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community could examine them.”

This lengthy negotiation also seems to back up what Trump said regarding his cooperation in the matter, which would have confirmed his assertion that the raid was “unnecessary, unwarranted, and un-American,” and that it instead likely “involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice in the Republican Party, President Trump.”

Wall continued on to explain that she received guidance from the Biden White House and the Justice Department on how best to move forward regarding the records, saying,

“The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege.'”

On April 11th, Wall had stated that “the White House Counsel’s office — affirming a request form the Department of Justice supported by an FBI letterhead memorandum — formally transmitted a request that NARA provide the FBI access to the 15 boxes for its review within seven days, with the possibility that the FBI might request copies of specific documents following its review of the boxes.”

Ultimately, Wall and the NARA turned over those 15 boxes of documents for the FBI to review, in accordance with the Biden White House request made in conjunction with the DOJ and FBI. Which means that Biden, or at least Biden’s handlers in the Biden Administration, definitely knew all about what was going on with the FBI probe and the documents in question, and they were definitely involved. Then, in the Mar-a-Lago raid, FBI agents reportedly seized several more boxes containing records that would be covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially the disputed executive privilege.

Ultimately, the Trump legal team has filed a motion seeking an order to appoint a special master to independently review the records obtained during the FBI raid, block any future review of those seized documents until a special master is appointed, require the DOJ to provide more detail in their property receipt from the raid, and require the return of items seized that exceeded the scope of the search warrant. The same search warrant that likely had no legal basis to begin with.