Sweeping Raid: Did FBI Get Сarte Blanche to Lift Anything From Trump's Home?

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) admitted on Monday that the FBI over-collected evidence in its raid of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last week. The new precedent could have a chilling effect on past and future presidents, according to US investigative journalist John Solomon.

The DoJ has acknowledged that the FBI's raid resulted in the collection of materials which have to be returned to the former president, including Donald Trump's passports and documents covered by client-attorney and executive privileges.

Some memos could be returned to Trump within a couple of weeks, according to John Solomon's latest op-ed for Just the News.

Even though a warrant collection can occasionally take materials outside the court-authorized scope, the FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid continues to raise new questions "about the real focus of the investigation," wrote the investigative journalist.

Speaking to Just the News, Kevin Brock, who served as FBI assistant director for intelligence under former Director Robert Mueller, explained that search warrants typically require "a level of specificity."

"Specificity is important in order to protect 4th Amendment rights from exuberant government overreach designed to find whatever they can," Brock said.

When it comes to the latest raid, this specificity is visibly missing in the bureau's warrant, according to the ex-FBI assistant director.

Earlier, Jonathan Turley, Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University, also voiced concerns about the warrant's "sweeping language," remarking ironically that "it is hard to see what material could not be gathered under this warrant."

To complicate matters further, the DoJ has rejected requests to unseal the FBI affidavit explaining the motive for the search, as well as what exactly federal agents looked for. The DoJ insists that the release of the affidavit may imperil this and other investigations.

"They were engaged in a fishing expedition, and the warrant itself wasn’t about classified information, though it mentioned it," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Just the News. "It talked about all sorts of other documents. It basically gave the FBI carte blanche to take anything they wanted from the Trump home. And the fact that a judge signed off on it is very troubling."

Some conservative observers suggest that the FBI raid could be potentially linked to the Democratic-led House Select Committee investigation into the January 6 Capitol protests in DC. The panel has held a series of hearings but has failed to establish any criminal case against the former president so far.

As the FBI raid came amid rumors that Trump may announce his new 2024 presidential bid soon, the former president's supporters see the bureau's efforts as an attempt to stop him from running. The fact that FBI agents seized a record of Trump's pardon of longtime friend Roger Stone adds to suspicions that the raid is connected to the Capitol breach probe, according to Just the News.

Meanwhile, on August 14, GOP Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan told Fox News that 14 FBI whistleblowers have come forward with concerns about the DoJ's alleged political bias in the wake of the bureau's Mar-a-Lago search.

“Fourteen FBI agents have come to our office as whistleblowers, and they are good people. There are lots of good people in the FBI. It’s the top that is the problem," Jordan told the media outlet. “Some of these good agents are coming to us, telling us … what’s going on... the political nature now of the Justice Department."

Earlier, a number of FBI whistleblowers reportedly informed Republican congressmen that the bureau and the Department of Justice had selectively launched investigations into conservative-aligned individuals and exhibited a pattern of political bias.

The FBI's sudden Mar-a-Lago search and over-collecting of evidence sends a troubling message to past and future presidents, according to Kevin Brock.

"This apparently makes a novel legal assertion that any presidential record kept by a former president is against the law," the former FBI official told Just the News. "You have to wonder what the other living former presidents think about that. They have the right and, apparently, clear desire to remain silent."