The US Department of Justice has asked to make public the warrant that led to the search of Mar-a-lago this week. Trump could end up with blackmail, says expert.
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When the FBI searched Donald Trump’s luxury villa Mar-a-lago in Florida on Monday this week, they are said to have looked for classified documents related to nuclear weapons. The Washington Post reports that Friday night.
The newspaper is said to have spoken to people familiar with the investigation into the former US president.
The FBI agents are also said to have been interested in other objects and material they thought could be in Mar-a-lago. It is unclear if they found what they were looking for.
It is still unclear what information these documents are supposed to contain, and whether they are US weapons or weapons belonging to other nations.
Neither Trump’s communications staff, the FBI nor the US Department of Defense have so far commented on the matter.
Will release Trump documents
– Faithful compliance with the rule of law is the basic principle of the Ministry of Justice and our democracy. Upholding the law, without fear, is exactly what the Justice Department is doing.
This is what the Minister of Justice in the United States, Merrick Garland, says during the first public press briefing The FBI search of Trump’s luxury villa Mar-a-lago on Tuesday night.
– The ministry has asked to make the search warrant public, in light of the fact that the former president confirmed the search, and the considerable public attention surrounding it, says the Minister of Justice.
Garland says he hopes documents from the search can become public, and that it depends on whether Trump opposes this or not.
The White House was not notified in advance of Garland’s statements, writes Reuters.
The Attorney General went on to say that he personally approved the search of Trump’s home, but that the department does not take such decisions lightly.
– When possible, the practice is to use less intrusive means, instead of a search, he says.
– Has seen through Trump’s bluff
US expert and Civita adviser Eirik Løkke says it will be exciting to follow Trump’s next move, now that the Ministry of Justice has asked to make public the search warrant and the receipt showing what kind of objects the FBI was looking for.
– They have seen through Trump’s bluff. Now he has the choice of whether to agree to the documents being made public – if not, Trump can be left with a black pen, says Løkke.
– Then it remains to be seen what the content and implementation criteria for the search warrant actually are. In any case, the Minister of Justice made it clear that he wants transparency around this, given the sensitive nature of the case.
–Trump and several of his Republican supporters were quick after the search to accuse Biden’s government of using the judiciary as a political weapon against the former president.
Eirik Løkke therefore believes that the US Department of Justice felt pressured to release the search documents.
– The question is how much it helps against the madness in the Republican party anyway, says Løkke.
– There is little that surprises with the coco madness of Trump anymore, but the way key Republican leaders have attacked the FBI and the rule of law is completely scandalous, he adds.
– Their integrity is being attacked
The Republican politician and Trump supporter Scott Perry, among other things, referred to the search as “Banana Republic strategies” from the FBI.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of the House of Representatives, who has previously been critical of Trump within the party, believed that the US Department of Justice had achieved an “intolerable degree of politicization”.
During the press conference, the Minister of Justice also wanted to address what he called “unfounded attacks on the FBI and the prosecution’s professionalism”.
– I will not sit idly by when their integrity is attacked. The men and women of the Department of Justice are dedicated, patriotic servants. Every day, they protect Americans from violent crimes, terrorism, and other threats to their safety.
Garland stated that the search warrant was authorized by a federal court.
–Republicans want more answers about the Trump investigation
NTB writes that Republican Lindsey Graham says there are still many questions the FBI and the Ministry of Justice must answer about the search of Donald Trump.
– What I’m looking for is the basis for the search. Was sufficient information given to the judge who said it was necessary to search the home of a former president shortly before this fall’s midterm elections?
– I am asking and actually insisting that the Ministry of Justice and the FBI put their cards on the table and show why this was necessary. Until then, suspicions will continue to grow, says Graham to the New York Times.
Must have kept documents
Former President Trump received a subpoena this spring, after investigators believed he had not handed over classified documents earlier in the year. This printer New York Times.
The US Department of Justice had previously made a legal request to have the documents returned FBI agents searched Trump’s home in Florida on Tuesday night.
AFP is informed by several sources that the search is linked to 15 boxes of documents, which the former president had to return to the National Archives in February.
It was Trump himself who broke the news that his luxury Mar-a-lago home had been searched:
– My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Peach, Florida, is now under siege, searched, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents, he wrote in a statement on his media platform Truth Social.
–According to Just the newstwo months before the search, Trump is said to have voluntarily cooperated by handing over security tapes and allowing agents and a senior Justice Department lawyer to examine his private storage locker.
Some of Trump’s supporters say that the petition shows that the former president and his people cooperated with the Ministry of Justice to find and return the relevant documents, and that there was therefore no basis for searching the luxury property in Florida, writes NTB.
The subpoena suggests that the Justice Department tried methods other than a search warrant to account for the documents, before sending agents to Trump’s home, where they believed the documents might be located, writes the New York Times.
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