After admitting to signing off on the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Attorney General Merrick Garland now faces a long list of questions.
Garland confirmed in a news conference Thursday that he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant” in the case.
“The department does not take such a decision lightly,” Garland said. “Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken.”
Garland also made sure to note the warrant was “authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland on FBI’s search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home: “I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter.” pic.twitter.com/h3Ek1vCaAx
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 11, 2022
These comments were obviously meant to suggest the raid was completely necessary. However, an exclusive report from the New York Post on Tuesday painted a different story.
The outlet said the search warrant “focused solely on presidential records and evidence of classified information being stored there.”
Even so, the FBI reportedly searched the house for over nine hours and went through areas including former First Lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe. It is possible they might have had a reason to do this, but from the outside, it certainly doesn’t look like the “narrow scope” Garland said was common.
Should Garland be investigated?
In addition, sources close to Trump told the Post that Evan Corcoran and other lawyers for the former president “had been cooperating fully with federal authorities on the return of the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration.”
If that recounting of the events is true, it would be hard to believe the FBI needed to conduct an unannounced raid just to retrieve the documents.
Garland said the federal government filed a motion to unseal the search warrant, which he said was due in part to “the substantial public interest in this matter.”
He certainly hopes the public release of this warrant will be sufficient to convince Americans the FBI’s raid was necessary. If it is not, Garland may face some serious problems.
According to Fox News, lawmakers have already expressed doubts about the necessity of the raid. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said an investigation into Garland may be necessary.
“Without question, I think the order to allow the raid on Mar-a-Lago on Trump’s house has to be revealed,” Paul said. “It’s going to have to wait until November till there’s a full investigation.
“And I’ve never been a fan of overusing impeachment, but I think there has to be an investigation. And if it warrants it, there’s going to have to be a look at whether or not the attorney general has misused his office for political purposes. Have they gone after a political opponent? I mean, this is beyond the pale.”
While Paul stopped short of saying Garland should definitely be impeached, he reiterated the importance of an investigation should Republicans regain a majority in the Senate.
“No one would have ever imagined before that we would be using or one political party would be using the FBI to attack their political opponents,” Paul said. “Now, this is really something that’s going to require an investigation. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the investigation leads to abuse of power that this could even lead to an impeachment of the attorney general.”
Unlike many on the left, conservatives in the United States believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Without the search warrant and many major details, it would be premature to say Garland abused his power beyond the shadow of a doubt.
With that said, there are more than a few red flags about the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago. At the very least, the warrant needs to be released to the public, and if doubts still remain, Congress must investigate Garland.
