President Donald Trump has announced via his social media company, TRUTH Social, that he intends to file a motion regarding what he deems was an illegal search and seizure – and a violation of the Fourth Amendment – regarding the August 9 raid at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump described the search as illegal, although the raid was conducted after a search warrant was signed by magistrate Bruce Reinhart.
Trump posted, “A major motion pertaining to the Fourth Amendment will soon be filed concerning the illegal Break-in of my home, Mar-a-Lago, right before the ever important Mid-Term Elections.”
Trump has been an outspoken critic of the raid. The event took place during the day, but by early evening on August 8, Trump had alerted the media that the FBI had conducted a search of his personal home in Florida. The issue at hand was whether Trump had taken classified records with him when he left the White House. Prior to the raid, Trump’s legal team – and President Trump himself – had been in cooperation with the NARA (National Archives), meeting with FBI investigators in June. Trump had already returned fifteen boxes to the National Archives in early 2022.
When the investigators asked the Trump team to put a special lock on the storage room where those records were being held, Trump complied. Americans on both sides of the political aisle have been asking what happened between June 3, 2022 and August 5, 2022, when the DOJ presented the affidavit and other documents to Judge Reinhart for his approval for a search warrant.
Americans also pondered why the Justice Department took over one year and a half to conduct the search if they believed Trump had such damaging documents. Even members of the media – most of whom have never been fans of the former president – have demanded transparency from the DOJ and FBI.
Last Thursday, Judge Reinhart held a hearing in which those media outlets asked for the affidavit that was presented to the magistrate to be unsealed for the public’s knowledge. Reinhart said the government hadn’t met the burden of showing that the affidavit should remain sealed. The Justice Department has until Thursday to present redactions to the affidavit, but it is not certain that the affidavit will ever be released.
Trump said that not only did the raid on his home violate his personal Fourth Amendment rights, but also those of the American public as a whole. The 45th POTUS also added that the search is just another step in “a continued witch hunt against” him.
The impending filing of said motion is just the latest development in the events surrounding the Mar-a-Lago raid. Since August 8, supporters have camped out near the resort and home. On Thursday, as Judge Reinhart was conducting the hearing, supporters with Trump flags flying from their vehicles drove past the courthouse in Palm Beach.
Fox News’ Sean Hannity reported on Friday that President Trump is considering releasing video footage of the raid, according to an interview with Trump’s son, Eric. It has been widely reported that the FBI agents conducting the raid told the Mar-a-Lago staff and Trump’s legal team to turn off the home’s security cameras, but the attorneys present refused. Trump’s attorneys were allowed on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, but they were not allowed inside the home itself to oversee the search.
According to multiple legal sources, one has the right to have legal counsel present at such an event.
Eric Trump told Sean Hannity that the footage would be released “at the right time.”
Trump also claims that the FBI “stole” his passports, two of which were expired. At first, the government said they had no such items, but would later announce that they had returned the passports to President Trump.
A Rasmussen poll recently showed that 53 percent of Americans believe that “there exists a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI . . . as Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo.”
