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- Feb 16, 2016
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The Trump Warrant Had No Legal Basis
A former presidentās rights under the Presidential Records Act trump the statutes the FBI cited to justify the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Opinion | The Trump Warrant Had No Legal Basis
A former presidentās rights under the Presidential Records Act trump the statutes the FBI cited to justify the Mar-a-Lago raid.
www.wsj.com
(Excerpt) ->
Was the Federal Bureau of Investigation justified in searching Donald Trumpās residence at Mar-a-Lago? The judge who issued the warrant for Mar-a-Lago has signaled that he is likely to release a redacted version of the affidavit supporting it. But the warrant itself suggests the answer is likely noāthe FBI had no legally valid cause for the raid.
The warrant authorized the FBI to seize āall physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. Ā§Ā§793, 2071, or 1519ā (emphasis added). These three criminal statutes all address the possession and handling of materials that contain national-security information, public records or material relevant to an investigation or other matters properly before a federal agency or the courts.
The materials to be seized included āany government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021āāi.e., during Mr. Trumpās term of office. Virtually all the materials at Mar-a-Lago are likely to fall within this category. Federal law gives Mr. Trump a right of access to them. His possession of them is entirely consistent with that right, and therefore lawful, regardless of the statutes the FBI cites in its warrant.
The materials to be seized included āany government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021āāi.e., during Mr. Trumpās term of office. Virtually all the materials at Mar-a-Lago are likely to fall within this category. Federal law gives Mr. Trump a right of access to them. His possession of them is entirely consistent with that right, and therefore lawful, regardless of the statutes the FBI cites in its warrant.
Those statutes are general in their text and application. But Mr. Trumpās documents are covered by a specific statute, the Presidential Records Act of 1978. It has long been the Supreme Court position, as stated in Morton v. Mancari (1974), that āwhere there is no clear intention otherwise, a specific statute will not be controlled or nullified by a general one, regardless of the priority of enactment.ā The former presidentās rights under the PRA trump any application of the laws the FBI warrant cites.
Commentary:
The overreach of both Garland and Wray is astounding.
If this were done by the DOJ during the Trump administration to Obama, or VP Joe Biden this would have been reversed long ago. Instead, this is going to be milked through the midterms.
It has in effect hurt the DOJ, Merrick Garland, the FBI, Christpher Wray, Democrats overall, and especially Joe Biden.
Well, we do know that unlike Bill Clinton the Nuke Codes were not lost, nor did DJT abscond with $28,000 worth of White House furniture neither did he leave with over 3 million documents as Obama did
Obviously, the Maoist Democrats in power have gone from being merely lawless to conceiving that their interests are the very bounds in which all law must operate.
It's become that using the word ālegalā with anything involving Democrats produces nothing.
For them, there are no rules, regulations, laws or statutes. All of those terms are for āothers.ā
