Let me start by stating the obvious. The execution of a federal search warrant at the residence of a former U.S. president is more than an extraordinary occurrence. Fact is, things like that just don’t happen.
Pick a presidential scandal in our history —Teapot Dome, Watergate, Iran-Contra or Whitewater. It just doesn’t happen. Not until Monday, anyway, when FBI special agents, lawful warrant in hand, rewrote the history books.
Now, let me tell you why the FBI search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida is such a big deal.
The former president of the United States is suspected of committing a crime. As obvious as that may seem given all that has transpired over the past seven years, the fact of the matter is that, as a nation of laws, we’ve never had a president who has been so antipathetic towards them.
Still, while no one is above the law, the presumption of innocence is an important tenet of American jurisprudence. We, all of us, even former presidents, are afforded the rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution when it comes to things like searches and seizures, protections against self-incrimination, and the right to trial by jury. Two centuries of justice under a constitutionally established rule of law ensures that.
Which is why the criticisms coming from the supporters rushing to the former president’s defense in the wake of the search make no sense. Those supporters know what due process and the rules of evidence are. They claim to be well-versed in the Bill of Rights. What’s more, their phony outrage directly undermines that long tradition of American jurisprudence.
The FBI executes search warrants all the time. Contrary to the fearmongers and conspiracy theorists amongst us, they are not political acts. Not even when directed against a politician. The reason for their use is simple and straightforward — to find evidence of a crime.
The process to obtain a warrant is also straightforward. Investigators and prosecutors working together set forth facts obtained during an investigation to establish probable cause that a crime was committed. If a warrant is authorized, investigators proceed to the location to be searched and execute it.
In the matter of the search executed on the former president’s residence, all these steps were surely followed. I speak from experience that a search like this would have been scrutinized at all levels of the FBI and DOJ before it even went to the magistrate.
It’s a rigorous process, and rightly so. To diminish it as the former president’s supporters have attempted to do (by calling it a “Third World” act) is a reprehensible offense not only to the rule of law, but to the Constitution itself. That’s a Constitution that they loudly pretend to support and defend until it won’t do their bidding.
Monday’s activity at Mar-a-Lago was still just the execution of a search warrant. An investigative step. While the former president’s own attorney has already indicated “paper” was seized it must be reviewed and determined if it can support further investigation. And even if it is something of significant value, there will still be much more work to do before criminal charges can be brought.
That said, I can’t help but think about what happened to Paul Manafort (Trump’s campaign manager) and Michael Cohen (his former personal attorney) after their residences were searched. The probable cause standards for them were very high, too, and yet look at what they yielded.
Indictments. Arrests. Convictions.
True, the former president is not them. He has proven himself adept at dancing between the raindrops without getting his hair wet when it comes to questionable actions in and out of office.
The search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was just the beginning. Now it’s about bringing charges and proving them. It’s never an easy task, especially with a subject as wily as the former president.
What’s more, despite all the accusations the minority leader of the House of Representatives leveled at DOJ and the FBI in the aftermath of the search, the simple truth is that it was a direct result not of “weaponized” law enforcement out to “persecute” a politician, but the crass incompetence and blatant disregard for American values that have marred the former president’s cult of personality since its inception.
The cult, it seems, is finally collapsing under its own gross obesity. As it does, we may be getting to the point that the myth the former president could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes is about to be shattered.
