Former President Trump Under Fire As Warrant Unsealed, But Not The Affidavit Which States Probable Cause

MAR-A-LAGO, FLORIDA - Today, the search warrant for Donald J Trump's estate was released to the public, in which documents specified what was found and taken by the FBI to review, in another display of what was seen as political madness.

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An article that was written today by a left-wing opinion columnist for the New York Times, held a title called, "Did the F.B.I. Just Re-elect Donald Trump?" where he posted statistics which read a pole from Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action Nationwide Survey, which stated that 83% of Republicans were more motivated now to vote than in the 2022 elections, in a bit of inner-party scolding.

According to the FBI, there were a total of 11 sets of classified documents removed from the estate, including an executive grant of clemency for Roger Stone, information regarding President Macron of France, and other documents and boxes, labeled as secret or top secret, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The warrant, which was signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on August 5th, ordered the seizure of 'all physical documents' which were marked as classified documents and Presidential Records, which were created during the former President's Administration, on or before August 19th.

Former President Trump responded with this statement to the release of the warrant and mentioning of the classified documents:

"Number one, it was all declassified. Number two, they didn't need to 'seize' anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-A-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request... They could have had it anytime they wanted - and that includes long ago. All they had to do was ask. The bigger problem is, what are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of which are classified, that President Obama took to Chicago?"

On August 11th, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced to the world that this was not a raid, that he was solely responsible for the search and seizure of President Trump's estate, and was moving for a motion to unseal the warrant. He then stated if former President Trump wanted to contest, he could.

Former President Trump was quick to announce his demand that the warrant be unsealed.

One thing to remember though, there are actually two different items that are sealed and contained in the warrant.
  1. The Formal Warrant: a short form generalized document that was signed by the magistrate-judge ( which is what was released today )
  2. The Probable Cause Affidavit which is sworn out under oath by a federal agent and contains 2 things. 1. a listing of a crime being committed 2. evidence of the crime likely being found in the places being searched. ( This has not been released and remains sealed in the court )
Also, important to note, that when a property is searched, agents are required to leave a copy of the warrant along with a list of what was taken. So former President Trump and his legal team were well aware of what the document contained, which was released today, since the search and seizure on Monday.

So ultimately at this point, other than a summarized general warrant and a list of documents that were seized, no one in the public domain knows exactly why former President Trump's property at Mar-A-Lago was searched. The Probable Cause Affidavit is still sealed in court. Everything being presented is still a matter of speculation at this point.

If anyone wishes to read the formal warrant, it has been released to the general public. Here is the link which is posted at Fox News: Case 9:22-mj-08332-BER

 
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