by Julie Kelly
Public outrage following the disclosure of shocking details related to the FBI’s unprecedented raid of Mar-a-Lago isn’t going away despite the best efforts by some to portray the search as “standard operating procedure.”
The scandal continues to put the Department of Justice on its heels. After court documents demonstrated the potentially dangerous situation created by the presence of two armed federal law enforcement agencies at the former president’s sprawling Palm Beach estate that day, both Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray made public statements in an attempt to downplay the FBI’s inclusion of lethal force language in the FBI’s raid plan.
But Republicans are not placated by the DOJ’s assurances of following “standard operating procedure” or unsubstantiated claims that the deadly force policy also was in play during consensual searches of Joe Biden’s home in 2023. And it appears U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon has her own set of concerns as to how the FBI conducted the search on August 8, 2022.
Next week, Cannon will hold a hearing in her Florida courtroom on Donald Trump’s motion to prevent Special Counsel Jack Smith from using evidence seized during the nine-hour raid at trial. Cannon is presiding over Smith’s espionage and obstruction indictment against Trump and his two codefendants.
Smith is on Cannon’s bad side for a number of reasons, not the least of which is his office’s recent confession that evidence is not in the same sequence as they were following the raid—something Smith’s lead prosecutor misrepresented in court—and that an unknown number of classified documents apparently are unaccounted for. (I explained here.)
Trump’s lawyers further accuse FBI agents of exceeding the scope of the warrant by ransacking the bedroom of Mrs. Trump and their son, Barron.
Smith’s Latest Attempt to Silence Trump
Cannon also will hear Smith’s argument to impose a partial gag order prohibiting Trump from making public statements critical of law enforcement involved in the case. After getting a scolding from Cannon for violating her rules related to conferring with the defense before filing any substantive motion—she called Smith’s half-assed attempt to reach Trump’s lawyers the Friday evening before Memorial Day weekend, “disappointing”—Smith filed a renewed motion to modify the conditions of Trump’s release, a better way of saying “gag order,” on May 31.
