The Difference Between an FBI Subpoena and an FBI Search Warrant
No, this was not like Watergate
Issue #103 American History August 9, 2022
On Monday, August 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a part of the Department of Justice, executed a legal search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, the residence of the former president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. The agency was seeking presidential records documents—classified and unclassified—that were illegally removed from the White House, against the law of the 1978 Presidential Records Act. All of this was requested by the National Archives and Records Administration, which is an independent agency of the United States government charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records.
Never before in American history has a search warrant been executed on a current or former president. But of course, no American president or former president has been impeached twice or potentially committed the crimes for which Trump is accused. This is a very historical event.
The search warrant was over 100 pages long and had to be signed by a Federal judge and Attorney General Merrick Garland. Some of the records being sought are so classified that they couldn’t be listed on the warrant due to national security concerns.
There are so many concurrent potential pending lawsuits in different jurisdictions against Trump that it took a while to find out exactly which grand jury investigation actually requested the search warrant.
Watergate was an illegal act by Republican President Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), which, on June 17, 1972, broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C., Watergate Office Building. Nixon finally resigned just before he was set to be impeached by the House of Representatives and tried and ousted by the Senate because he and some of his aids tried to cover up the crime, including destroying some official presidential records. He announced his resignation exactly 46 years ago, on August 8, 1974.
Watergate: It wasn’t the crime, it was the coverup.
The 1978 Presidential Records Act was passed in response.
This is another Republican president being investigated by the Justice Department on multiple potential Federal and state crimes, including trying to destroy and/or remove some official presidential records.
Trumpgate: It’s the crimes AND the coverups.
In layman’s language, a subpoena is a “request” while a search warrant is a “demand.” Presidential documents do not belong to the president. They belong to the American people and the FBI was retrieving what belonged to US.
Previously, the FBI removed 15 boxes of illegally-removed-from-the-White House documents from Mar-a-Lago, but Trump refused to submit the remaining documents as requested.
The executive branch (DOJ/FBI) had to go to the judicial branch (a Federal judge) for the search warrant to be legal, valid, and executed.
Of course the execution of the search warrant was “unannounced.” The FBI was not going to call Trump and say, “This is the FBI and we are going to execute a search warrant at your home. Is 5 pm a good time for you?”
The FBI did alert the Secret Service stationed at Mar-a-Lago to let them know they were on their way, and the SS granted them access. No doors were broken down. The Trump lawyers were there and opened the safe. It wasn’t “broken into.”
As you may know, we publish 7 days a week on “We Are Speaking,” and I schedule the topics I will write about often weeks in advance in my editorial calendar.
I had a completely different article on the regular Tuesday “American History” topic scheduled for today, but then “stuff happened.” This is American History in real-time.
So my scheduled topic for today has been moved to a future Tuesday.
The Top 5 Takeaways from this Search Warrant Execution
The DOJ has been investigating this issue of illegally removed documents since at least February 2022. Some random FBI agent didn’t just wake up on Monday and decide to visit Mar-a-Lago. The judge who signed the warrant had to be shown “probable cause” that a crime may have been committed.
The White House was not given advance notice of the search warrant; the DOJ insists on staying independent and the AG not being seen as the personal attorney for the president as the former AG, Bill Barr often was.
The DOJ/FBI executed the search warrant, but the Secret Service opened the doors to Mar-a-Lago to let the agents in. The agents were at the compound for hours.
Many Republican leaders are siding with Trump, even in the face of Trump’s mounting legal problems, not seeing the irony of the defense of an accused criminal, even though previously they considered themselves the party of “law and order.”
Investigators visited Mar-a-Lago back in June to learn more about the documents Trump illegally removed from the White House. Trump lawyers showed them where the documents were stored, including the basement safe. The FBI knew exactly what they were looking for and where the documents would be. “Breaking into the safe” (as Trump claimed) was a natural part of the search and seizure process.
This is going to be a political “hot potato” for the next several months.
Much of the Republican leadership, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), keep defending Republican Donald Trump who has always been embroiled in scandal and lawsuits, including paying off a call girl while he was campaigning for the 2016 presidential election.
McConnell declared, even before the 2nd set of impeachment papers was delivered to him from the House, that the Senate would not vote to find Trump guilty, no matter what evidence the trial showed.
The DOJ and the Democrats believe that this investigation is just a continuation of all of the investigations currently involving Donald Trump. The Republicans, on the other hand, are crying “foul” and demanding that the DOJ and the FBI be “defunded,” continuing their efforts to destroy the government and our democracy.
Interesting Mar-a-Lago History
Mar-a-Lago, which means “sea to lake” in Spanish, was built in the mid-1920s by Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal Company and the founder of General Mills.
According to a Wikipedia article, at the time of her death in 1973, Post bequeathed the property to the National Park Service, hoping it could be used for state visits or as a Winter White House, but because the costs of maintaining the property exceeded the funds provided by Post, and because it was difficult to secure the facility (as it is located in the flight path of Palm Beach Airport), the property was returned to the Post Foundation by an act of Congress in 1981. In 1985, Mar-a-Lago was purchased by Donald Trump for around $10 million.
What do you think about this unprecedented event and the fact that the Republicans keep defending Trump and threatening violence against Democrats? Let us know in the comments.
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