A former assistant director of the FBI recently claimed that he thinks the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago shows that the government has “no case”.
The affidavit in question was released last week by a magistrate judge in response to court filings submitted by certain media outlets and third parties. The legal document, however, was heavily redacted and revealed very little about what the FBI agents were searching for on Aug. 8 and why.
Kevin R. Brock, the former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI and principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), wrote in an opinion piece Sunday:
“We now know why the DOJ wanted the affidavit—which is supposed to articulate the probable cause needed for a legitimate search—to be kept under seal,”
Brock then goes on to list his reasons for doubting the FBI:
“First, the affidavit confirmed that the FBI’s investigation was triggered in January 2022 at the request of the National Archives, which wanted certain documents, especially classified documents, that it considered to be presidential records to be turned over to it by Trump.”
“Second, from what I have seen, I don’t believe the affidavit articulates how a federal law was or is being broken. For those who hold out hope that the affidavit’s redacted sections fill that gap, there is almost no chance that they do,”
According to Brock, the document’s argument for probable cause only seems to include “half of what is needed to show a possible violation of the federal statutes that are cited in the warrant”. Brock added that in his experience, it’s unlikely that the government will release the redacted portions of the affidavit.
The contents of the affidavit that were not redacted, do not show sufficient cause to believe that Trump wasn’t authorized to have the documents at his Florida residence.
“A criminal violation of those statutes only exists if it can be established that the person being investigated was not authorized to possess, store, transfer or copy those documents… This is an easy element to establish against anyone in America. Except for one person.”
Former aides to the President, and even Trump himself, claim that there was a standing order to declassify any materials that left the White House for Mar-a-Lago.
Meanwhile, Trump wrote in October on his now-banned Twitter account that he had declassified some FBI-related materials. He also issued an order on Jan. 19, 2021, to declassify some FBI Crossfire Hurricane documents.
“As president, he had broad, legally intimidating authority, established by law and court determinations, to declassify any and all documents and to determine what is and is not a presidential record,”
“Trump and his legal team have asserted that this authority was exercised while he was still president. Therefore, a violation of these fairly low-level and seldom-prosecuted document-oriented statutes cannot be proven.”
Ryan DeLarme is a disillusioned journalist navigating a labyrinth of political corruption, overreaching corporate influence, high finance, compromised media, and the planned destruction of our constitutional republic. He is also a Host and Founder at Vigilant News. His writing has been featured in American Thinker, Winter Watch, Underground Newswire, and Stillness in the Storm. He also has written scripts for television series featured on Rise.tv. Ryan enjoys gardening, creative writing, and fighting to SAVE AMERICA
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