The Mar-a-Lago Raid: What We Know & What it Means
The world was shocked at the unexpected FBI raid on President Donald Trump's house in Mar-a-Lago in Florida on August 8, 2022. Many people on both sides of the political aisle are spectating about why the FBI was raiding the home of the former US president. Many theories are being spread around, so I will break down the facts about what we know so far about the FBI raid. On January 20, 2021, President Trump left the White House and took dozens of boxes with him, just like most presidents do when they leave office, for example, President Obama, President Bush, President Carter, etc. It's important to note that at the time, Trump was allowed to take those documents to his post-presidential home at Mar-a-Lago, and the president had the authority to declassify any document at any time without any process. For the remainder of 2021, President Trump's lawyers and the National Archives have constantly communicated about missing records. In January 2022, 15 boxes were sent to the National Archives from Mar-a-Lago.
On February 18, 2022, the House Oversight Committee was informed in a letter that "classified national security information" was discovered in boxes they received from Mar-a-Lago back in January. The Justice Department was notified that there might be potential violations of the Presidential Records Act. It is important to note that President Trump & his representatives have been willfully participating and complying with the demands of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI throughout the process. On June 3, 2022, officials from the DOJ and the FBI arrived at Mar-a-Lago with a grand jury subpoena. President Trump and his representatives continued to willfully participate in the investigation; during an interview with Morning Wire with one of President Trump's lawyers, it was said that Trump was shaking hands with FBI agents. They were shown the basement storage room where all the White House-related documents were kept, and President Trump's attorneys gave documents marked as "top secret" to the officials. On June 8, 2022, the Justice Department counterintelligence chief requested that President Trump put a more robust lock on the storage room to ensure the boxes were safe and ordered them to stay there. On June 22, 2022, the Federal government served a subpoena for the surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, to which President Trump complied.
On August 5, 2022, US Attorney General Merrick Garland signed off a sealed search warrant on Mar-a-Lago; three days later, on August 8, the FBI, dressed in plain clothes, showed President Trump's representative the sealed warrant. However, they forced her off the property during the raid; they gave her the full copy of the warrant after they left 9.5 hours later with the remaining boxes. The FBI searched for a bedroom, the former first lady's wardrobe, and a safe they broke into.
It is important to note that 1) a former president has never been raided, 2) the FBI is concerned with the Presidential Records Act, which, according to their protocol, would only necessitate a raid if documents were being shredded or someone was in imminent danger. President Trump was in New York City while the raid was taking place.
Things To Consider
Whether you love or hate President Trump, he deserves to be treated fairly. In all circumstances, he has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, just like everyone else. Biblical justice is impartial because God is impartial (Leviticus 19:15, Romans 2:11, Psalm 98:9).
This wasn't just an attack on President Trump; it was an attack on the American people because if they can do this to him, they can do this to every American.
The FBI raiding a political opponent sets a dark precedent for the future; this only happens in communist and socialist countries.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump were political opponents and may also be future political opponents. As of right now, President Joe Biden is planning on running in 2024, and President Trump has been dropping not-so-subtle hints at his rallies that he will most likely be running in 2024. If this were to happen, they would be political opponents again. Having the FBI raid a person's political opponents is a dangerous precedent.
Why did the Attorney General not issue a subpoena instead of going to the extent of a whole FBI raid with 270 man-hours? Was it worth breaking the American people's trust in the Federal government and showing that the FBI is playing politics?
If President Trump and his team were complying with the Federal government, what was the need for the FBI raid other than to intimidate President Trump and his supporters?
Why now? President Trump has been out of office for almost two years. If it was so urgent, why now?
In light of the Federal Government hiring 87,000 new armed IRS agents for tax audits, how can we be sure they won't be weaponized against political dissidents?
When Hillary Clinton was found guilty of having classified information in her emails, she was not issued any criminal charges, she was still allowed to run for president in 2016, and there was no FBI raid on her private residence.
The FBI shut down the investigation on Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 election because it would unfairly influence the election. We now know President Joe and Hunter Biden were involved with business dealings in China, Russia, and Ukraine. Where is the investigation?
The alleged diary of Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Biden, was found in a hotel room. In that diary were accusations of her experiencing child sexual abuse at the hand of her father. Why was there utter media silence on that? If this were Ivanka Trump’s diary alleging the same things, the media would never let it go.
Currently, rumours are spreading that President Trump had information on nuclear bombs and their codes, despite the search warrant not mentioning anything about them. What were they really looking for? What were they doing for 9.5 hours? If this was so urgent, why does the warrant say that they had two weeks to raid? The lack of transparency from the FBI leads people to speculate that they planted evidence against President Trump.
The FBI has a record of lying to the public to attack President Trump. For example, they lied about the Russian collusion scandal and said the allegations came from the DOJ when they actually came from Hillary Clinton's campaign attorney. In my opinion, the FBI has lost its credibility because it has been weaponized as a tool for the Democrat Party that has been used to wrongfully target President Trump.
Overall, whether President Trump is guilty or not, I believe he's innocent; this is clearly an example of liberal-democrat privilege. The Statue of Liberty wears a blindfold because it represents impartial justice; however, the DOJ, the FBI and the Democratic Party have removed the blindfold of justice. Democracy depends on impartial justice, and the rule of law applies equally to everyone. If America doesn’t restore those two things, democracy will continue to be in decline.
Resources
Chamberlain, S. (2022, August 12). Trump raid timeline: What led to the unprecedented search of mar-a-lago. New York Post. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://nypost.com/2022/08/11/trump-raid-timeline-what-led-to-the-mar-a-lago-search/
Devine, M. (2022, July 28). Hunter Biden's biz partner called Joe Biden 'the big guy' in panicked message after Post's laptop story. New York Post. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://nypost.com/2022/07/27/hunter-bidens-biz-partner-called-joe-biden-the-big-guy-in-panic-over-laptop/
Feuerherd, B., & Moore, M. (2022, May 24). FBI wrongly told its agents Trump-Russia collusion claims had come from DOJ, Bombshell Document reveals. New York Post. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://nypost.com/2022/05/23/fbi-told-agents-trump-russia-data-source-was-from-doj-not-clinton-tied-lawyer/
Fox News Staff. (2022, August 13). Hillary Clinton's emails seem 'a lot more serious' than justification for trump raid: Marc Thiessen. Fox News. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.foxnews.com/media/hillary-clintons-emails-serious-trump-raid-marc-thiessen
Lambiet, J. (2022, June 22). Florida woman who found Ashley Biden's diary is under investigation for selling it. Daily Mail Online. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10896941/Florida-woman-Ashley-Bidens-diary-investigation-selling-it.html
Morning Wire. (2022, August 11). FBI raids latest: 8.11.22. Spotify. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from
Pearce, T. (2022, August 12). Trump raid warrant, receipts make no mention of 'nuclear weapons'. The Daily Wire. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-raid-warrant-receipts-make-no-mention-of-nuclear-weapons
Perez, E., Orr, G., & Brown, P. (2022, August 11). Feds removed documents from Mar-a-lago in June with grand jury subpoena. CNN. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/11/politics/mar-a-lago-search-subpoena-latest/index.html
Politifact, & Senator, J. R. U. S. (2017, May 16). Politifact - does the president have 'the ability to declassify anything at any time'? PolitiFact. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/may/16/james-risch/does-president-have-ability-declassify-anything-an/
Saavedra, R. (2022, July 20). 'critical stage': Feds consider charging Hunter Biden with multiple crimes, including gun-related crime. The Daily Wire. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.dailywire.com/news/critical-stage-feds-consider-charging-hunter-biden-with-multiple-crimes-including-gun-charges
Simko-Bednarski, E. (2022, August 11). Feds served subpoena, seized documents from Trump's mar-a-lago in June: Report. New York Post. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://nypost.com/2022/08/11/feds-seized-documents-from-trumps-mar-a-lago-in-june-report/