In the latest move to destroy evidence in Donald Trump’s classified documents case, the former president’s lawyers argued Tuesday that the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago was “overly broad” and violated Trump’s rights when FBI agents raided the rooms of Trump’s son Barron and his wife Melania.
“It is our contention that agents searched a room where they did not have probable cause to do so… and that has a bearing on the question of whether the search was impermissibly broad under the Fourth Amendment,” attorney Emil Bove said at Tuesday’s hearing. “They searched the room where the president’s son kept his Peloton!” he added, noting that agents also seized medical records.
Even Trump-appointed Judge Eileen Cannon, who has done everything in her power to rule in Trump’s favor, was skeptical of the claim, and legal experts have flatly denied it, telling The Daily Beast that FBI agents followed standard procedure in executing the warrant and did not violate Trump’s Fourth Amendment rights.
“In Trump’s case, investigators did have warrants to search Melania and Barron’s rooms,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahamani told The Daily Beast. “Trump had access to those rooms, where classified documents could have been kept.”
Rahmani explained that all search warrants must be detailed and clearly describe the locations agents plan to search and the types of items to be seized. In other words, the scope of the warrant is determined by the size of the items agents are looking for. And because classified documents can be found in any small room, authorities have the legal right to search all locations listed in a warrant signed by a federal judge.
“Typically, agents are allowed within the scope of their warrant to search anywhere they might find items. Since this is about papers, they could search drawers, because pieces of paper are literally everywhere,” former FBI agent and assistant US attorney Todd Foster told The Daily Beast. “If you’re looking for a machine gun, you’re not going to be able to search a jewelry box.”
“If that room is in the basement of the same house and the warrant authorizes a search, then any room in that house could be searched,” added Todd, who is now a Tampa-based attorney.
Trump also alleged in lengthy online posts that federal agents arrived at Mar-a-Lago and ordered summary executions, but prosecutors reiterated that it is standard FBI policy to use force while executing search warrants, which include boilerplate language that agents are “armed while on duty.”
During a Mar-a-Lago raid in August 2022, FBI agents found hundreds of classified documents throughout the former country club mansion, including Trump’s bathroom, prosecutors said. Trump is charged with illegally concealing state secrets and obstructing government efforts to recover the secrets.
During a three-day hearing in Florida this week, prosecutor David Harbach argued that agents who conducted the searches only seized classified, government and presidential documents. He said agents did not touch anything in Melania or Barron’s rooms, and that medical records found in boxes of relevant information were returned when they were found.
“This is not a Fourth Amendment violation because there were likely classified documents stored in these rooms,” Lahamuni said. “They were moved and hidden throughout Mar-a-Lago.”
But the defense argued that the government overstepped its authority. Mr. Cannon seemed unconvinced. At the end of a two-hour hearing on Tuesday, he questioned the defense’s argument that Justice Department officials should have written in the affidavit that only a sitting president does not need a security clearance to view classified government information.
“But he just got out of office,” Cannon said of the timing of the FBI raid on Trump’s Florida home, adding that he didn’t believe agents did anything wrong. “I don’t know what further words are needed.”
As Cannon ponders his decision on the issues raised in the hearing, it’s clear the case won’t see a jury until after the election, when Trump is seeking to retake the role of commander in chief. One former FBI special agent said Trump’s team is making a flurry of allegations in a Hail Mary move, apparently trying to buy time.
“Their strategy was to tie up the court for as long as possible. [Republican] “It’s all about the conventions and ultimately the election in November,” Stuart Kaplan, a criminal and civil lawyer currently practicing in Florida and New York, told The Daily Beast.
“They just tied up the court system with all this rushing. [Judge Cannon] “She was going to set a trial date. The irony is, she took it out of their control and actually said there will be no trial at this point.”
