Trump should let public know what documents FBI was seeking with warrant at Mar-a-Lago

Posted 10 August 2022 at 8:21 am

Editor:

The court-ordered search of Donald Trump’s home is a tempest in a teapot so far.

1. Trump-appointed FBI director, Christopher Wray, was responsible for the investigation and conviction of Clinton’s Secretary of State, Sandy Berger, for illegally possessing far less classified documents when he was no longer in office. He is not partisan.

2. Trump’s lawyers haven’t made motions against the search warrants at this time, so we don’t know what their legal basis for complaining is. They will if Trump’s litigation history is any guide.  DOJ will have to disclose something even if the motion, as has been his wont, is bogus.

3. Trump is free at any time to release the warrant so we can know what’s suspected and what was being looked for. That would settle a lot of guessing that’s going on.

4. We’ve known for over a year that representatives of the National Archives at DOJ have been going there asking for “eyes only” documents which were believed to be there and not in the 15 boxes he turned over.

5. The Trump-appointed judge who was satisfied the application met the requirements of the Fourth Amendment which must at some point open everything. When is a guess depending on what’s found and any other pending cases. If there are “eyes only” classified materials they will not be described, just noted. The fact the National Archives had to piece torn and shredded documents back together with tape last spring suggests there were some there at some time.  We know some staffers have testified documents plugged the toilet so the toilet bowl will cloud the accuracy of any inventory when it’s finally released.

Until we know about the about these four things all we are seeing is political posturing. But historically these document cases go away unless the person with the documents has passed the information on to our enemies or used it to profit themselves. Of course this could be the first “eyes only” case not charged as treason which is a different animal.

We just do not know yet but that warrant, which Trump can release, would tell us a lot. Is this a mole hill made out to be a mountain by him or is he actually being accused of something unforgivably serious?

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion