Law and politics are always intertwined, and both are based on the economic structure of, in this case, late capitalism. Capitalism, always anarchic and prone to crisis, has reached a stage of imperial tension over dwindling resources among the military industrial complex and Big Business, i.e. the Establishment, neither of which serve the interests of the people. The people, bereft of a genuine working-class movement, are discontent and unfocused—a sporadic Trucker movement here, a farmer’s movement there— as living standards decline year after year as resources are hoovered to the the rich, on the one hand, or military priorities (billions for UKR to ‘weaken Russia’) on the other. The alternative are unfocused mutant populist movements, one of which Trump was able unexpectedly to ride to the White House. The Establishment doesn’t want that to happen again and their bureaucracy, who picks and chooses what’s in its interest to enforce, is ensuring just that.
It’s through this lens the Trump ‘raid’ is best understood.
The FBI ransacked former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday on the pretext additional classified information remained at the private club after the National Archives retrieved more than a dozen boxes of White House documents from the resort earlier this year.
After the search, the federal agents hauled away roughly 10 more boxes.
The extraordinary law-enforcement action came two months after Justice Department lawyers, including an official who supervises investigations involving classified information, visited the Palm Beach, Fla., residence seeking more information about potentially sensitive material that had been taken there from the White House.
A potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump for violating government records laws could test seldom-used statutes and trigger an unprecedented legal battle over whether he could be barred from again seeking the nation’s highest office if convicted.
The Justice Department has been looking into the former president’s handling of official records as well as his actions around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Monday’s search is separate from the Jan. 6 investigation, the people familiar with the probe said. Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing and casts the investigations as part of a long-running campaign by Democrats.
The FBI was executing a warrant, which is predicated on the belief that there may be evidence of a crime at that location, though it is unclear how the investigation may progress and whether prosecutors are considering bringing any charges against Mr. Trump. The warrant refers to the Presidential Records Act and possible violation of law over handling of classified information. The warrant hasn’t been made public yet although, also unprecedented, the Attorney General has asked the judge who issued it to unseal it.
The Justice Department recently added more prosecutors and resources to a separate inquiry into efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss, with clear signs that investigators are examining Mr. Trump’s own actions around Jan. 6, 2021.
The search required signoff from Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was appointed by President Biden, and Christopher Wray, the FBI director appointed by Mr. Trump in 2017.
The showdown over documents escalated in January when the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago that Mr. Trump should have handed over to the agency at the end of his term. A person familiar with the records said they included a letter former President Barack Obama left for his successor and correspondence between Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The boxes contained some documents subject to a federal law requiring official records to be turned over when a president leaves office as well as some material archives officials described only as “classified national security information,” prompting them to refer the matter to the Justice Department for investigation.
The Justice Department makes a priority of investigating potential theft or mishandling of classified information, though often those cases involve evidence that the person involved leaked the information or sought to provide it to a foreign government.
In June, investigators met with a pair of Trump attorneys who took them to a basement room where the boxes of materials were being stored, a person familiar with the matter said. The investigators looked around and eventually left, the person said. Mr. Trump himself was present only briefly during that visit, making small talk but answering no questions.
The Justice Department told Trump lawyers in a June 8 letter to further secure the room where the documents were stored, the person said, prompting staff to lock the room.
It remains unclear how Monday’s search related to the June visit.
Strict rules govern the handling of classified information, which typically must remain in specially designed facilities. Federal law bars government employees from removing classified information and holding it at an unauthorized location. Someone convicted of that offense could face a fine and up to five years in prison.
A separate federal law makes it a crime to conceal, remove or destroy records filed with courts or in public offices, punishable with a fine and up to three years in prison. Government employees convicted of breaking that statute can also be disqualified from holding any federal office. That penalty wouldn’t apply to Mr. Trump if he were found to have violated the statute, some legal experts said, because the Constitution dictates the qualifications a presidential candidate must have, and Congress can’t add new ones.
Charges under either statute are relatively uncommon.
So what’s this all about? On the one hand will be those that say ‘no one is above the law’ while others will (correctly) note this is a ‘politically motivated move.’
Bottom line: it goes to show the lengths the bureaucratic establishment is willing to go to contain the mutant populism Trump represents.