Donald Trump and the White House seized on a Fox News report Tuesday alleging that the FBI lacked probable cause to search his Mar-a-Lago resort for government documents taken after his 2020 election loss. Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance disputed this characterization, noting that Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon had already addressed and rejected this argument while overseeing the case before it was dismissed following Trump’s re-election. Fox News reporter Brooke Singman reported that FBI emails she obtained suggested investigators questioned whether probable cause existed for the search and felt pressured by the Biden administration’s Justice Department to proceed. Trump posted on Truth Social: “Unreasonable Search and Seizure!!! That was the FBI’s CRIMINAL RAID on Mar-a-Lago. This can never be allowed to happen again!!! President DJT” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt amplified the story, posting, “Here’s the story that matters..” Vance countered both on her Substack platform, explaining that even Cannon rejected the notion that internal FBI disagreement invalidated the probable cause underlying the search warrant. When Trump’s attorneys challenged how the warrant was obtained, Cannon—despite her general favorability toward Trump—sided with the Department of Justice. “But Cannon didn’t find in Trump’s favor in this instance, finding that there was sufficient probable cause for the search warrant despite any dissent in the FBI ranks. Cannon held that considering dissenting views by FBI agents would not have ‘altered the evidentiary calculus in support of probable cause,’ a remarkable ruling from a Judge who leaned strongly in Trump’s favor throughout,” Vance wrote. MSNBC’s Carol Leonig also disputed Singman’s reporting, characterizing it as “misleading” on social media. “Senior @FBI officials agreed there was ample probable cause before the Aug 2022 raid – incl videotapes showing Trump aides had secretly moved boxes of government records out of storage room,” Leonig wrote.
You can read more from Vance right here.
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