What I'm reading: The FBI search of Trump's residence
Legal angles
Iowa’s Republican members of Congress were on message August 9, casting skepticism on the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. They all highlighted the “unprecedented” nature of the search, as if that alone made the action illegitimate.
My Bleeding Heartland post focused on Iowa political reaction, which was full of deflection and misleading spin. I’ve also been learning more about the legal angles. Here are a few of my favorite reads so far.
The Just Security website published a timeline of events and a thorough review of “the possible federal criminal violations for which Trump might be charged.” The authors have deep knowledge in this area: Asha Rangappa is a legal analyst and former FBI agent. Norman Eisen “worked on these issues as the White House ethics czar, where he had responsibility for seeking compliance with presidential records rules during the Obama administration.” In that role, Eisen helped write an executive order “restructuring the classification system.” Bradley Moss is a national security attorney in Washington who has represented many clients on issues related to classified documents.
Several Washington Post reporters collaborated on a story that shed more light on the reasons for the search: “In the months before the FBI’s dramatic move to execute a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Florida home and open his safe to look for items, federal authorities grew increasingly concerned that Trump or his lawyers and aides had not, in fact, returned all the documents and other material that were government property, according to people familiar with the discussions.”
NPR’s Becky Sullivan considered “What were FBI agents looking for and what are the consequences?”
Political and legal reporter Chris Geidner wrote at his Substack newsletter about the search at Mar-a-Lago and the FBI confiscating U.S. Representative Scott Perry’s cell phone the next day. Leading up to the January 6 attack, Perry was involved in the effort to install a Trump loyalist as attorney general. He later tried to secure a presidential pardon.
Finally, Marcy Wheeler, also known as “emptywheel,” speculated about what was in the affidavit the FBI submitted in order to get a federal magistrate to sign off on a search warrant. She wrote a separate post about “some likely exacerbating factors that would contribute to a Trump search.” Wheeler was a major inspiration to me during my early blogging years in the 2000s, and I highly recommend her website.
What have you been reading about the Trump investigation? The comment section is open below.
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