It’s the silly season.
That’s what election years are called, because as voting approaches, parties and candidates say increasingly silly things.
Republicans are now claiming the FBI search to recover classified government documents from ex-president Trump’s private home at Mar-A-Lago was “a politically motivated hit.” (See story here.)
That’s just plain silly. The National Archives tried for over a year to get those boxes of stolen government records. They negotiated with Trump’s lawyers. They subpoenaed them. Finally, in frustration, after nothing else worked they referred the matter to the Department of Justice, which used its law enforcement powers to put and end to the stalling and lack of cooperation.
It’s clear Trump would never have given up those papers voluntarily. A federal magistrate reviewed the highly detailed application for a search warrant, found probable cause that a crime had been or was being committed, and approved the search. It was deliberately carried out while Trump was elsewhere.
A man who interviewed families of slain intelligence operatives for a book he’s writing says the redacted search warrant affidavit released on Friday, August 26, 2022, “confirms the worst fears of many within the intelligence community”: Trump was in possession of materials, “should they fall into the wrong hands,” could endanger lives, both of Americans and foreigners. (See story here.)
Don’t believe what Republicans and their Fox mouthpieces say about the search. The FBI agents were doing their job: Protecting America’s sensitive secrets. This has nothing to do with politics. It’s a national security matter.