Analysis: FBI report raises tensions between Trump and Justice Department

A report that FBI agents searched for classified documents related to nuclear weapons at Donald Trump’s Florida resort could explain the urgency of the unprecedented operation at a former president’s home, as well as take his confrontation with the Justice Department to a new level. level.

The report in The Washington Post could also hurt Republican lawmakers, who did not wait for details of the case before criticizing a pursuit they said was more typical of a tyrannical state.

The latest development also further raises the stakes of a growing legal battle after Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday called the former commander-in-chief’s bluff and, in an unusual move, asked a court to open the search warrant and inventory of properties taken from the Trump home.

The details of the Post report came on yet another extraordinary day that replayed the chaos and recriminations of the Trump presidency and carved new bitter political divisions ahead of the former president’s likely run for the White House.

The paper quoted people familiar with the investigation as saying that federal agents were looking for classified documents relating to nuclear weapons, among other items, at Trump’s resort. People did not describe the documents in detail or whether they related to nuclear weapons belonging to the US or another nation. THE CNN did not independently confirm the report.

But if it turns out that Trump took this material from the White House, it would raise the question of why a former president would need such closely guarded secrets after leaving office. The possibility that this material could be kept in an unsecured facility where guests come and go and where it would be potentially vulnerable to penetration by a foreign intelligence service would alarm government officials.

As the legal battle over the search intensifies, Trump has until 4 p.m. EDT on Friday to officially signal whether he will contest Garland’s move.

In a statement on his Truth Social network on Thursday, the former president said he would not oppose the release of documents related to the “unwarranted, unwarranted and unnecessary invasion” of his home.

He did not say exactly which documents he would be ready to see released. And the FBI search wasn’t a break-in; was legally authorized by a warrant approved by a judge who must have found probable cause for a crime to have been committed.

It’s your decision, Mr. Ex-president

Garland’s move was elegant.

Search warrants are usually kept confidential to protect the reputation of the person to whom they apply. But Trump himself broke the news of the search, thus destroying his own expectations of privacy in order to orchestrate a political storm to discredit the investigation. And if Trump fought to keep the document sealed, he would look even more like he had something to hide.

“This is a professional move,” Phil Mudd, a former FBI and CIA employee, said of Garland’s actions in “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.” “This is not a pawn move. This is a move of something between a rook and a queen.”

If Trump were to contest the opening of the warrant — a move that could neutralize the GOP’s claims that the former president is a target of political victimization — his lawyers would have to explain why in court.

The judge in the case, who has received death threats and abuse on social media from Trump supporters, could still decide to support the Justice Department’s motion, even if the former president wants to keep the information secret.

“This is what it looks like when you see the rule of law fighting Trump’s lies,” Nick Akerman, former assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, told Erin Burnett of the CNN . “I find it extremely unlikely that Donald Trump will prevail here.”

Garland’s play is a clear attempt to quell the fury of Republican officials over the unprecedented search warrant at the former president’s home.

Lawmakers, media pundits and Trump supporters have launched unbalanced claims that the US is now nothing more than a police state, with a Gestapo-like secret police, and descended into tyranny.

In deciding to appear before the Justice Department cameras, Garland not only called Trump’s bluff off and gave in to pressure from Republican leaders who demanded to know the rationale for the search.

He sought to protect his department and the legal process, as he insisted that every step in the investigation be taken with deliberation. His short appearance, in which he didn’t answer questions, was scripted to refute specific criticisms and the out-of-control conspiracy theories on the right.

“Faithful adherence to the rule of law is a fundamental tenet of the Department of Justice and our democracy,” said Garland.

“Defending the rule of law means applying the law uniformly, without fear or favor,” he said, implying that even former presidents are not protected if there is suspicion that they have committed a crime.

Garland has also spoken out forcefully in defense of the FBI and the Department of Justice, calling them “dedicated and patriotic public servants,” while Trump’s lackeys portray the agency as a politicized arm of Democratic chicanery.

The Attorney General’s remarks, a dramatic moment for Washington, were a sign of the extraordinary sensitivity and importance of the investigation into the former president. Generally, the FBI says little about ongoing investigations unless someone is charged — a step that, if it ever happens, seems a bit far off in this case.

An unsealed search warrant will not comprehensively establish whether the department’s action against Trump was justified or overstated. But Garland’s move suggests firm confidence in whatever case the agency is building against Trump.

It also shows that the department, from the top, is behind the decision to go ahead with a search – knowing, of course, that doing so would trigger an extraordinary and vehement reaction from Trump.

The idea that the whole affair is just a politically motivated plot created by legal hacks – Trump’s essential case against it – is much harder to believe after Garland’s appearance.

Trump’s decision

Trump’s lawyers have yet to respond to the Justice Department’s motion.

The former president appears to have three options. He could release the search warrant and inventory of items the FBI removed from his resort; he can accept the department’s request that it be opened by the court; or he could oppose the release of the warrant to the public.

In a logical universe, the latter option seems unlikely, as the former president broke his own privacy when he broke the news of the FBI search in a politicized speech on Monday night. And the Justice Department is essentially arguing in its court filing that the public’s interest in knowing what really led to the search is now greater than Trump’s interest in keeping the details under wraps. Public interest is arguably even greater in light of the Post’s report on nuclear documentation.

“For him to come back now and say ‘I don’t want this’ would be very weird and bizarre,” said Jared Carter, a professor at Vermont Law School.

But Trump does not play by the normal rules. Given his lifelong record of exhausting all legal options to thwart accountability and the inability of judicial and political institutions to constrain him, a counter-intuitive legal strategy cannot be ruled out.

Whether the former president will fulfill his promise not to oppose the release of documents in the case should become clearer this Friday.

Republicans change goal posts

The report on the FBI seeking nuclear documentation at Mar-a-Lago raises new questions for Republicans who have attacked the agency and the Justice Department over the search without any apparent knowledge of what it was about.

Perhaps in a telling sign of how Thursday night’s events have scrambled the messages of Trump’s usual supporters, the conservative House Freedom Caucus sank a planned press conference on the Mar-a-Lago search hours after Trump’s report. Post about the nuclear documents was released.

Garland’s decision on Thursday should have neutralized Republican demands that he speak publicly about the search and publish the warrant. But once the attorney general stopped talking, mainstream Republicans demanded more.

“What I’m looking for is the predicate for the search,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement.

“Was the information provided to the judge sufficient and necessary to authorize a raid on the former president’s house within ninety days of the midterm election? I am asking, indeed urging, that the Department of Justice and the FBI put their cards on the table as to why this course of action was necessary,” added the Trump ally in South Carolina.

While Garland asked for the opening of the search warrant, which could come with an inventory of documents taken from the Trump residence, he did not ask for the opening of affidavits intended to show probable cause that a crime had been committed in support of the request for a warrant. warrant.

So Graham made his appeal knowing he’s calling for a measure that would contravene long-standing Department of Justice guidelines — and could undermine any criminal case the FBI might eventually bring against the former president.

Trump himself responded to Garland’s on-camera appearance with one of his signature “Witch Hunt” posts on his Truth social media network.

It is impossible to verify the statements of a former president who lied as a matter of course while in office. But several of Trump’s earlier claims that he was suddenly the target of an “invasion” and “siege” by FBI agents out of the blue were marred by Thursday’s developments.

Evan Perez, Gabby Orr and Pamela Brown of CNN , for example, reported that federal investigators heeded an earlier grand jury subpoena and removed documents from Mar-a-Lago in June. This seems to indicate that Monday’s search was a last resort and supports Garland’s contention that the FBI took steps to ensure that the search caused as little disruption as possible.

But the Attorney General is also trying a strategy that has perpetually failed Trump – using facts and legal norms to break down his wall of lies and falsehoods.

Some Trump allies have already launched another conspiracy theory – that the FBI planted documents in the former president’s residence.

Almost two years after Trump lost the last election, the country faces yet another exhausting challenge to the rule of law of the former president who was impeached twice.

Facts and truths are once again the first casualties.

This story has been updated with additional developments.