This afternoon, Attorney General Merrick Garland made brief remarks to the media regarding the search warrant that was served at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach golf club, Mar-a-Lago, on Monday.
During that press briefing, Garland noted that the Justice Department is moving to unseal the warrant and a redacted property list that shows what items were seized by the FBI.
Afterwards, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said the AG had just called Trump’s bluff:
“We essentially saw Merrick Garland call Donald Trump’s bluff. So essentially Merrick Garland said, ‘Okay, Donald Trump, you’re not going to release them, we’re going to do it, we’re going to put those documents in front of the American public.'”
If that information is indeed unsealed, Honig explained what he expects to see:
“The warrant typically will list logistical information, place to be searched, usually a general description of items to be searched for, the name of the judge, a deadline by which DOJ has to execute the search.
“But it also sometimes has what we call an attachment. That attachment typically will list the statutes, the laws that DOJ believes it has probable cause to believe were violated. So that’s going to be the first thing I look for. I’m going to look right at that attachment and say do they list the statutes, that’s going to tell us what laws could be at play here.”
It should also be noted that Trump and his attorneys can file a motion to keep the Justice Department from unsealing the search warrant and other materials. Don’t be surprised if they do exactly that, because Trump knows the minute the details of what documents he was keeping at Mar-a-Lago is made public, his guilt will be confirmed for all the world to see. And that’s his worst nightmare.
