Critics of the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida home have argued the lack of transparency is more damning to the agency than any claim of impropriety against the president. To support that case, Fox News host Sean Duffy did a quick fact check to counter the narrative that has left the federal government implying Trump is somehow as bad as the drug lord El Chapo.
(Video: Fox News)
The former Republican representative from Wisconsin filled in as host of “Jesse Watters Primetime” Monday where he laid out the conduct of the fishing expedition at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, and how federal agents had “turned his mansion upside down.”
“Do they think former President Trump is a flight risk?” Duffy asked after reporting a statement from the president where he declared, “They stole my three passports along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our country.”
“Where is he going to flee to?” the host argued. “His plane has his name written on the side in giant gold letters.”
“Sources are also telling Fox News that the FBI seized records that are covered by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. If you want to know how this could possibly happen to a former president, all you have to do is look at the language used in the warrant. It was specifically overly broad,” Duffy explained. “It gave the feds the power to rifle through every inch of the mansion: Trump’s safe, the master bedroom, even Melania’s clothes, despite knowing exactly where the documents were located.”
“This was calculated. They were looking for ‘fruits of a crime?’ That gives the FBI access to anything and everything in Trump’s home” he contended before framing the character of the president, “who has never had a drink of alcohol. He’s never smoked a cigarette, and he’s never been convicted of a crime, but to the Democrats and the DOJ, Trump is El Chapo. So, they threw out the rule book.”
Trump has repeatedly called out the Justice Department since the unprecedented raid and did so again Monday when he demanded the release of the affidavit so the public could see what probable cause was used to justify a search warrant on his home.
“There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago…But, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Also, the judge on this case should recuse!”
Trump calls for release of ‘completely unredacted’ Mar-a-Lago affidavit; CBS falsely reports no passports were taken https://t.co/3hH7fg1fPe pic.twitter.com/Sx7fU6BsGm
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) August 16, 2022
Representatives for the Justice Department filed a request with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Monday that the affidavit remains confidential arguing, “If disclosed the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps.”
However, the ever-changing story and discordant behavior of the federal agencies involved have only heightened suspicions that this raid was indeed another instance of the political weaponization of government institutions. Further still, Duffy pointed to the manner of the raid and argued, “in the eyes of the DOJ, Trump is below the law.”
“[Attorney General Merrick] Garland says it’s standard practice to be less intrusive,” the host stated after playing a clip of the AG saying, “Where possible it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken.”
“There’s nothing more intrusive than having 30 agents in your home for nine hours,” Duffy argued, “and it obviously wasn’t narrow in scope. They turned his mansion upside down, raided his wife’s closet.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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