With all due respect, Forkup? It this case really WAS on the level then if I'm the Attorney General of the DOJ and I'm about to raid the home of an Ex President of the United States? The LAST judge that I'm going to get my warrant from is Magistrate Reinhart! A judge who recused himself from hearing a lawsuit between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton because he felt he was biased against Trump? With the shit storm that you had to have known this was going to create...why would any rationale person go to THAT judge and why would THAT judge ever agree to issue the warrant?
As for sufficient probable cause? The first question any judge SHOULD have asked is doesn't a President of the United States have the ability to classify materials and if so how could anything Trump had at his home be considered "classified"?
The LAST judge that I'm going to get my warrant from is Magistrate Reinhart!
Anyone claiming the DOJ's warrant would have been accepted by those that choose to defend Trump as being above board if only another magistrate would have signed off on it is dumb or dishonest. Sorry to put in those terms but those are the only options. One of the go-to defenses for any person coming into contact with the DOJ is something in the line of " they don't like me, so they are going after me." This defense is only very rarely successful because one has to actually SHOW misconduct. What you have is no evidence of that but evidence to the contrary. In the form of the fact that the FBI said they expected to find evidence of certain crimes in Mar O Lago and they found exactly that.
A judge who recused himself from hearing a lawsuit between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton because he felt he was biased against Trump?
He did recuse himself. The reason for it though is something you infer because it was never motivated, like it ususally isn't.
The first question any judge SHOULD have asked is doesn't a President of the United States have the ability to classify materials and if so how could anything Trump had at his home be considered "classified"?
Interesting theory. So you think a judge before he approves a search warrant should consider whether or not there is an (incredulous) possible defense of the plaintiff that would at best mitigate but not absolve somebody of a crime?
-First none of the 3 statutes the FBI said that they believe Trump violated hinges on the files being declassified.
-Second, the idea that Trump declassified while in office (the only time he would have had the authority) without there being ANY paper trail the support it is simply ludicrous. There is a reason the lawyers who represent Trump in court aren't making any such claims.
I'll put it like this. Your argument would mean that let's say a suspected murderer shouldn't have his house searched because he could claim that the bloody knife the police claim they expect to find in his home could be explained away by the guy saying the knife fell into the leg of the victim. Hell, it's even worse since at least that explanation has the possibility of absolving him from the murder.
I don't think that sounds right. Do you?
The fact that a search conducted with a warrant turns up evidence of a crime doesn't mean that said warrant was valid. Americans have rights
No, it doesn't mean the warrant was valid. It strongly indicates though that it probably is. Unless you believe the FBI just got really, really, really lucky to find the exact thing they expected to find.
One of which prohibits the Government from raiding any of our homes with a general warrant looking for evidence.
The warrant wasn't general. It was specific to documents from his time in the White House, with the caveat that it also includes documents found in the boxes where the documents were found.
As for the government's prohibition on conducting unreasonable searches. That's why a search has to be signed off on by 2 branches of government. Which happened here making the search by DEFINITION lawful.