So, it seems that a judge who was appointed by former President Donald Trump is going to be handling the lawsuit he’s filed against the government concerning the materials that were seized from his home in Florida by the FBI several weeks ago.
According to the Daily Wire, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida, put out an order on Tuesday requesting that Trump’s legal team offer some clarification concerning what “precise relief” is being sought in the suit.
She then asked why Trump thinks that her court is the proper venue for the case and a few other questions.
Well, this is certainly an odd kind of situation.
“The judge handling Trump’s civil suit was nominated by the former president to fill the seat in May 2020. The Senate confirmed her to the bench in November of that year in a 56-21 vote. Prior to her nomination, Cannon worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020,” the report said.
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The former president filed his lawsuit on Monday, making a request for the court to appoint what is known as a “special master” to oversee the FBI audit of the material that was taken from his Mar-a-Lago estate. The lawsuit is also requesting that a detailed list of items that were taken be handed over along with the immediate return of any items that were taken outside of the scope of the search warrant.
And yes, there were items that were taken that were not part of the search warrant, such as Trump’s passports, which the bureau actually admitted to taking.
“Cannon’s Tuesday order asks Trump’s legal team for clarification on five aspects of the suit. The judge gave Trump’s team until Friday to respond,” the Daily Wire reported.
Here’s more from the report:
A group of roughly two dozen FBI agents arrived at Mar-a-Lago on the morning of August 8 while Trump was away in New York. The agents brought a search warrant signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart. Before his appointment to the federal bench, Reinhart was a federal prosecutor and, later, served as a defense attorney for employees of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Reinhart’s political donations — including to former President Barack Obama in 2008 and to Republican Jeb Bush during his 2016 presidential run — have raised questions from critics over the judge’s ability to be fair. He also recused himself earlier this year from a RICO lawsuit Trump filed against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and others.
Reinhart did not give a reason for his recusal except to cite subsection 455 under Title 28 of the U.S. Code.
Then on Monday the judge ordered the DOJ to give the court a copy of the search warrant affidavit, with redactions, for potential release to the general public. The order from Reinhart was given partially in answer to requests being made by several news outlets and watchdog organizations.
The judge gave a partial defense of his choice to sign the search warrant in the order by saying, “The Court issued a search warrant for the Premises after finding probable cause that evidence of multiple federal crimes would be found at the Premises.”
What this lawsuit is really about is former President Trump striking back at the FBI for overstepping their bounds and for being used as a weapon in a major political attack against him.
There’s no way we can all say for sure, 100 percent, that the motivation for the raid was political. At least not at the moment. But it sure does seem like there is an awful lot of evidence that indicates that’s the case.
Democrats are desperate. They are doing absolutely horrible on the polls right now, largely due to the policies of the Biden administration having wrought more destruction on the country than any sort of good. High inflation, astoundingly high gas prices, barely affordable groceries. None of these are good at any time, for a political party, but they are especially fatal during a midterm election.
The left might — and likely will — lose control of the House. But if things continue, they might lose the Senate too. And they don’t want that to happen. They were hoping this raid would produce something they could use against Trump and win points for the November election and maybe disqualify him from running in 2024.
And now, Trump is on the offensive, which is why they are heavily redacting everything and doing their best to keep stuff concerning the raid sealed.
Let’s hope the truth is made known sooner rather than later.
