Who's Dat Knocking At Mar-A-Lago? It's the Feds With a Warrant, Go Figure (w/ Update)

I was planning on blogging tonight about the victory lap President Biden and the Senate Democrats could enjoy this week after having passed major legislation that guarantees most of what Biden promised in 2020 would get done...

But then news broke early this evening about something more Schadenfreude-licious (ever so tasty), so I decided to distract myself with some malicious joy instead.

Apparently, mister donald trump, former President Loser of the Popular Vote (Twice) is upset as hell tonight because FBI agents bearing a warrant to search Mar-A-Lago showed up and seized evidence, although it's not yet clear exactly what the investigation was looking for.

To Deepa Shivaram and Ryan Lucas at NPR for more:

Former President Donald Trump said on Monday that FBI agents had searched his Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., and opened his safe.

The FBI and Department of Justice declined to comment, although the department is known to be investigating the possible mishandling of government secrets after the National Archives retrieved White House records from Mar-a-Lago

The search, which would have required a court order from a federal judge, signals the president is under greater scrutiny from federal investigators than was previously known...

As they note, a warrant means a federal judge had to sign off on this raid. And the only way the feds can do that is present enough existing evidence of wrong-doing to justify entering a location - be it home for trump or a resort business also for trump - and search for specific things. The fact his safe was targeted meant the FBI had evidence there was something there relevant to an ongoing investigation.

While Shivaram and Lucas point out that the Justice Department does have an ongoing investigation focusing on mishandled government documents - and Mar-A-Lago is where trump hid 15 boxes from NARA after he left the White House in January 2021 - there are other possible investigations at play here:

Monday's action also comes as the Justice Department was ramping up its investigations into Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — though there have not been reports of an investigation into Trump himself...

The ongoing House Committee investigation into the January 6th Insurrection has reportedly been sharing information - and referring materials for official investigation - with Justice, implying there is at least a federal grand jury digging into possible criminal charges into trump and his handlers for their involvement in the rioting that day.

One avenue of investigation the DoJ is reportedly working on are the efforts by some of trump's allies in various Red states where Biden won of organizing "Fake Electors" to trick the state legislatures into approving their set of Electors instead of Biden's. Wisconsin and Arizona in particular are under scrutiny, and there had been reports that trump was in direct contact with some of those organizers.

And of course, there's the taxes thing. Not just any investigation by the IRS into trump's financials, but also recent revelations that trump allegedly ordered the IRS to harass former administrative figures like James Comey and Andy McCabe, FBI officials whom trump fired when they wouldn't swear fealty to him.

With all this going on, of course trump is jumping onto social media to proclaim his innocence and how this is all a partisan witch-hunt. Of course the Far Right - Fox Not-News is reportedly enflamed with rage tonight - is screaming that the FBI is persecuting trump for political reasons (did one of the crazy congresscritters insist that the FBI should be dissolved for this?). They're all insisting that something like this has never happened to a former President Loser of the Popular Vote (Twice) before.

That's kind of true. The FBI has never gone after ex-Presidents before. Even the likes of Richard Nixon who was facing impeachment for serious federal crimes never had his personal safe hit with a warrant search. Then again, we've never had an openly corrupt and crooked ex-President like donald fucking trump before.

None of the others in recent history - not LBJ (and he had some dirty secrets to hide), not Nixon, not Ford, not Carter, not Reagan, not Bush the Elder, not even Bill Clinton who was under near-constant investigation due to Whitewater (and who faced public scandal regarding Lewinsky), not Bush the Lesser, not Obama in spite of all the screaming by the Far Right he was guilty of something - had personally violated so many laws while in office (with Reagan and Bush the Lesser overseeing some corrupt and broken administrations). Worse, none of them had violated so many laws while leaving office.

Any expectation that any former President should be exempt from criminal investigation is a fantasy (the OLC ruling about sitting Presidents being exempt is just when they're in office. Once out, they are exposed to liability as long as the clock on statute of limitations are ticking). No one person is above the law, and if trump broke any laws - and there's at least four things under investigation now that points to a solid "MAYBE" - then By God the FBI is going to show up knocking at the door with a warrant in hand.

There is always the fear in politics than a partisan autocrat - a wannabe dictator in the Jacksonian (and now trumpian) mold - would abuse the powers of the Justice Department and agencies like the FBI into hounding political opponents with unjustified "criminal" probes.

But as tonight's revelations are showing, the current Biden administration under Attorney General Garland isn't playing rough with those rules. Everything about the warrant search is by-the-book: The agents presented a case to a judge and that judge signed the warrant. It's not as though Biden himself penciled in the warrants or Garland rubber-stamping something, or even the FBI smashing the doors in without a warrant at all.

And given the sensitivity, nay the severity of the situation - the judge HAD to know issuing a warrant on a former President Loser of the Popular Vote (Twice) would raise legal questions - the feds still went through with it.

Let me just say this: I'm not fearing the FBI knocking on my door - or smashing it down - because I know I'm not breaking any laws that warrant their attention.

This is happening because there is solid evidence donald trump broke various laws, and there was evidence today he possessed additional proof of his misdeeds that required this "home/business" search.

The Far Right outrage will be out of control over this, we're seeing the first wave of it tonight. But let justice be done though the heavens fall. 

trump's been laughing at the legal system for 50 years. It's way past time to hold him accountable to the law.

Unleash all the schadenfreude this night, people. Let the popcorn pop and the wine flow.

(Update 8/9): It's turning out the warrant search IS in relation to the National Archives investigation. Speculation is no longer wondering if trump kept possession of highly classified documents after he was supposed to hand them over ('cause he clearly and illegally kept them): Speculation is now ruminating if trump exposed those documents to a third party (which is when the seriousness of this kicks to the next level up), and who tipped off the feds that trump still had these papers (which suggests someone real close to him just ratted trump out big time).

The likelihood of donald trump getting charged for violating the Presidential Records Act just went from "Toss Up" to "Leans Yes."

(pops open another champagne bottle)