Garland Gambles on Making Mar-a-Lago Warrant Public
After several days of intense scrutiny, Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday specifically addressed concerns regarding the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago.
The raid, which has been strongly criticized by Trump and his allies, has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many Americans. They see the event as a politically-minded attack on Trump’s likely 2024 run.
Now, in an effort to exert their own spin on the subject, Garland is asking a court to release the DOJ’s search warrant.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department asked a federal judge Thursday to unseal a search warrant that was used by FBI agents to raid the Florida home of former President Donald Trump three days earlier.
That request came after days of pressure by Republican lawmakers and other allies of Trump on the Justice Department to explain why it authorized what is believed to be the first-ever search of a former president’s residence in connection with a criminal investigation.
The Justice Department is seeking to unseal the warrant and an inventory of items seized by the FBI during the search of Trump’s home at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. But the department is not asking the judge to unseal the affidavit of probable cause, which would detail how authorities believe a crime was likely committed and why there would be evidence of that crime in the location targeted in the search.
Some Republicans are already blasting the move as a distraction, and are demanding that Garland work to unseal the affidavit that would explain the DOJ’s motives in procuring the warrant.