UNITED STATES—On August 9, Judicial Watch announced they filed a motion asking for the U.S. District Court in Southern Florida to unseal the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago.
“Executing a warrant against ex-POTUS is dangerous. The apparent political weaponization of DOJ/FBI is shameful. AG must explain why 250 yrs of practice was upended w/this raid. I served on Benghazi Com where we proved Hillary possessed classified info. We didn’t raid her home,” said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
On Monday, August 8, the Federal Bureau of Investigations executed a search warrant in an unannounced raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate at 1100 S. Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach, Florida. The raid took hours, as documentation was taken from the home. Trump’s attorney, Christina Bobb was present during the search and seizure of documents.
The search warrant could be an effort to exorcise the Presidential Act. The Presidential Act (PRA) of 1978, 44, U.S.C. ß2201-2209, governs the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents that were created or received after January 20, 1981 and amended in 2014.
The PRA changed private documents to public. Documents are removed at the end of the sitting President/Vice President’s term. Documents deemed classified must stay on the premises and is proper procedure involving staff from the existing administration for the proper retention or disposal of records.
FBI agents were seeking documents that Trump took with him from The White house after leaving office in 2021. Top Clinton lawyer, Marc Elias suggested that if Trump were found guilty of a crime, he could be prohibited from running for POTUS in 2024.
“Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States,” Elias cited U.S. Code Title 18 section 2071 from the PRA.
A former special-agent-in-charge told Fox News Digital that, “The FBI’s decision to execute a search warrant at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home is, “unprecedented, especially for a non-sitting commander-in-chief, and one who has indicated he might run again.”
The search warrant was executed following the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas where he won the straw poll carrying 69 percent of the vote. DeSantis carried 24 percent for a 2024 Presidential run.
Former President Trump posted the following statement on the social media site, Truth Social:
“It is dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, the unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
