Judge rejects Trump’s argument that Mar-a-Lago search warrant was invalid

CNN
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Federal Judge Eileen Cannon said Tuesday she found it “unlikely to find any problems” with the warrant obtained by the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in the summer of 2022.

While he did not rule on the third and final day of oral arguments in Fort Pierce, Florida, Judge Cannon appeared to side with the prosecutors on whether Trump’s defense could withhold boxes of evidence seized by the FBI in August 2022.

Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, had argued the warrant was too broad, allowing agents to improperly search the entire Mar-a-Lago property.

But Cannon said the language in the warrant signed by the magistrate judge appeared to be sufficient.

Cannon said he was “unsure what more needs to be included” in the warrant’s description of where agents could search Mar-a-Lago and what documents they could seize.

Trump and his co-defendants, personal assistant Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago estate manager Carlos de Oliveira, are charged with mishandling and obstructing classified materials in a lawsuit brought by special counsel Jack Smith. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Bove wants to hold more hearings where the judge can scrutinize the investigators’ work, as has been the case in other recent hearings in the classified documents case. But Cannon is asking tough questions.

“We’re not talking about searching a suburban house,” Bove said, explaining that investigators had not been specific enough about properties with more than 50 rooms when they asked the court for permission to search and seize classified documents in 2022.

“They claimed they were searching for classified documents in the gym and in the kitchen,” he added.

But Cannon disputed Bove’s complaint, noting that even if investigators had searched much of the property and found documents in some rooms but not others, there may not have been any legal issues.

“But I would agree that the documents could be anywhere,” the judge said.

Investigators say they found classified documents in various locations throughout the resort, including public ballrooms, bathrooms and bedrooms.

At the end of the hearing, Cannon and prosecutor David Harbach again sparred after a brief exchange on Monday that revealed the special counsel’s office’s continuing dissatisfaction with the hearing and the response of Trump’s lawyers.

Harbach rose to the floor after Bove finished his arguments. Trump’s lawyers had tried to argue, without sufficient evidence in court, that prosecutors should have a duty to provide information about what division of the FBI worked on the case or whether any of the agents involved disliked Trump.

Harbach called it an “attempt to hijack the hearing.”

But Cannon, seeking to wrap up a hearing that had already lasted nearly two hours, quickly interrupted the prosecutor to say the hearing had not been hijacked.

Harbach asked the judge if he could discuss his defense strategy in more detail in open court.

“This has to do with the defence repeatedly trying to make arguments that have absolutely no bearing on the facts before the court,” he said.

Cannon then interrupted him and ended the hearing.

This story and headline have been updated to reflect additional developments.