Merrick Garland, Donald Trump.Photo: Bonnie Cash-Pool/Getty Images; Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
United States Attorney GeneralMerrick Garlanddelivered a brief, last-minute speech Thursday afternoon aboutthe FBI search warrant executedat former PresidentDonald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on Monday.
While he could not detail much about the investigation itself, he noted a few important things.
First, Garland said that the Department of Justice and FBI did not intend to publicize their search of Mar-a-Lago out of respect for Trump’s right to privacy, but that after the former president made it public, it became clear that the DOJ needed to weigh in on the news dominating headlines.
Garland informed Americans that in an effort to be transparent, the DOJ has just filed a motion in a Florida court to unseal thesearch warrantand property receipt so that the public can see basic details of their search.
Trump reportedly has the ability to release those documents independently of the court, but has not yet done so.
It is believed that the FBI’s search was conducted in order to retrieve classified documents that Trump allegedly failed to turn over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of his presidency, though Garland did not confirm that detail in his speech.
The attorney general also revealed that he personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant and that it was not a decision taken lightly, but was viewed as a necessary last resort in their investigation.
Garland made clear that while all Americans are entitled to the presumption of innocence, they are also entitled to the “even-handed application of the law” and the “due process of the law,” suggesting that Trump is not above being investigated if there is probable cause that a crime was committed.
Just ahead of the remarks,Reuters reportedthat the White House was not given advance notice of Garland’s last-minute press conference, further distancing PresidentJoe Bidenfrom the inner-workings of the Department of Justice.
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On Tuesday, White House press secretaryKarine Jean-Pierretried to make the DOJ’s independence clear, claiming that Biden’s team only learned of the Mar-a-Lago search warrantthrough news reports.
source: people.com
