Merrick Garland Waited Weeks To Execute Search Warrant
The American people have been told that the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was important and had to be done quickly because of the sensitive nature of the documents he had.
But apparently it was not important enough for Attorney General Merrick Garland to act quickly as he deliberated for weeks on whether or not to conduct the raid, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Attorney General Merrick Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve the application for a warrant to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, people familiar with the matter said, a sign of his cautious approach that will be tested over the coming months.
The decision had been the subject of weeks of meetings between senior Justice Department and FBI officials, the people said. The warrant allowed agents last Monday to seize classified information and other presidential material from Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Garland now faces a more momentous decision that will further sharpen an already unprecedented and politically fraught situation: whether to pursue charges against Mr. Trump or any of his allies over their handling of the records at issue and their interactions with Justice Department officials seeking to retrieve them.
A decision to bring charges in the matter against Mr. Trump or any of his allies would thrust the Justice Department deeper into a political environment in which the former president’s supporters and Republican lawmakers are already accusing Mr. Garland and the department of overreach.
“The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Garland took weeks to approve the application for a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago. Yet, the DOJ has argued that vital secrets were at risk and time was of the essence,” legal scholar Jonathan Turley said on Twitter.
“…It is another reason why we need to see more information or the underlying affidavit.
It also begs the question of why Garland did not take basic steps to assure the public that this was not politically motivated like asking for a special master to sort out privilege material,” he said.
“Even today, Garland refuses to answer basic questions on the communications between June and the raid, including whether specific followup requests for documents were refused by the Trump Team,” he said.
But this week the Department of Justice has asked a judge to keep the affidavit for the search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence sealed.
News organizations have requested the affidavit but, on Monday, the Justice Department argued in a court filing to keep it sealed “to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security,” NBC News reported.
It argued that the affidavit contains “highly sensitive information about witnesses, including witnesses interviewed by the government; specific investigative techniques; and information required by law to be kept under seal.”
“Disclosure at this juncture of the affidavit supporting probable cause would…cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation,” U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez and the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control chief, Jay Bratt, said.
The fact that the Department of Justice called it an “ongoing criminal investigation” is startling.
The former president responded on his Truth Social account and he was furious.
“There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!), by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of ‘Justice’ but, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN. Also, the Judge on this case should recuse!” he said.
https://conservativebrief.com/execute-65652/
The American people have been told that the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was important and had to be done quickly because of the sensitive nature of the documents he had.
But apparently it was not important enough for Attorney General Merrick Garland to act quickly as he deliberated for weeks on whether or not to conduct the raid, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Attorney General Merrick Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve the application for a warrant to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, people familiar with the matter said, a sign of his cautious approach that will be tested over the coming months.
The decision had been the subject of weeks of meetings between senior Justice Department and FBI officials, the people said. The warrant allowed agents last Monday to seize classified information and other presidential material from Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Garland now faces a more momentous decision that will further sharpen an already unprecedented and politically fraught situation: whether to pursue charges against Mr. Trump or any of his allies over their handling of the records at issue and their interactions with Justice Department officials seeking to retrieve them.
A decision to bring charges in the matter against Mr. Trump or any of his allies would thrust the Justice Department deeper into a political environment in which the former president’s supporters and Republican lawmakers are already accusing Mr. Garland and the department of overreach.
“The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Garland took weeks to approve the application for a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago. Yet, the DOJ has argued that vital secrets were at risk and time was of the essence,” legal scholar Jonathan Turley said on Twitter.
“…It is another reason why we need to see more information or the underlying affidavit.
It also begs the question of why Garland did not take basic steps to assure the public that this was not politically motivated like asking for a special master to sort out privilege material,” he said.
“Even today, Garland refuses to answer basic questions on the communications between June and the raid, including whether specific followup requests for documents were refused by the Trump Team,” he said.
But this week the Department of Justice has asked a judge to keep the affidavit for the search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence sealed.
News organizations have requested the affidavit but, on Monday, the Justice Department argued in a court filing to keep it sealed “to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security,” NBC News reported.
It argued that the affidavit contains “highly sensitive information about witnesses, including witnesses interviewed by the government; specific investigative techniques; and information required by law to be kept under seal.”
“Disclosure at this juncture of the affidavit supporting probable cause would…cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation,” U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez and the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control chief, Jay Bratt, said.
The fact that the Department of Justice called it an “ongoing criminal investigation” is startling.
The former president responded on his Truth Social account and he was furious.
“There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!), by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of ‘Justice’ but, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN. Also, the Judge on this case should recuse!” he said.
https://conservativebrief.com/execute-65652/
