Welp, now it’s getting really interesting, America. “It,” of course, being the FBI raid on Donald and Melania Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago. As reported by several sources on Sunday, the former president sent a private message to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday, prior to a Justice Department afternoon news conference. Grab the popcorn: The contents of that message have now been revealed.
Shortly before the press conference, a person close to Trump reached out to an official at the Justice Department to deliver a message to Garland. As reported by The New York Times, the message Trump wanted to be passed to Garland reads:
The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?
Let the speculation begin, which I will gladly start.
Aside from the stunned look on my face when I first read the message, I said to myself, “You gotta be kidding me.” No way does this fit Trump’s persona, particularly when The Donald does battle with the legions who despise him. Then I wondered, assuming the message is genuine, why would he send it? To Merrick Garland, of all people? Was it a legit question out of legit concern?
Was Trump truly concerned with the country being “on fire” — a fire with the left he stoked throughout his presidency and in the aftermath of the 2020 election — and was he truly wondering what he could do to “reduce the heat”?
Or, was it a ploy by Trump to appear reasonable to Garland as part of an attempt to engineer some sort of amends? I don’t know — and neither do any of us — so I will not speculate.
Don’t misunderstand; I’m not suggesting any of the above would have been wrong on Trump’s part, but questions remain — the reason being, it simply doesn’t add up; it is the antithesis of the Donald Trump some have come to know and love over the last seven years.
And as we reported on Thursday, the key question remains:
Why did the FBI raid Mar-a-Lago just two months after Trump secretly received a grand jury subpoena for classified documents belonging to the National Archives, and then voluntarily cooperated by turning over the asked-for documents? He also surrendered security surveillance footage of his private storage locker and aided federal agents and a senior Justice Department lawyer in searching the locker, according to multiple people present, some of whom said Trump cooperated extensively.
What changed over the course of two months?
If Trump willingly and extensively cooperated, and the DOJ later decided to seek additional information, including, perhaps, documents Trump failed to provide the first time, why not issue a second subpoena rather than conduct a full-blown raid? These are legitimate questions, while a bit rhetorical, as well, given the past unacceptable tactics of former FBI head James Comey against Trump.
The decision by Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice to conduct a raid on Mar-a-Lago appears neither justified, based on what we know, nor does it track with the DOJ’s past non-decisions in situations not involving Donald Trump. If Garland’s “final okay,” which he made clear he alone gave during his Thursday news conference, was based on Trump’s alleged removal of classified material from the White House, that would appear to be a blatant double standard of justice.
Where was the raid on Hillary Clinton‘s home, after a software manufacturer bragged that his product — Bleachbit — was used to delete more than 33,000 emails from a private email server Hillary used for official State Department business, in clear violation of government policy? Incredibly, Hillary later claimed the deleted emails contained only personal, non-work-related subjects like yoga sessions and the planning of her daughter Chelsea’s wedding.
Yet Donald Trump’s private residence is raided, just two months after he voluntarily cooperated with a secret subpoena. Moreover, previous violations of the Presidential Records Act have generally been punished by administrative fines; certainly not by raids on former presidents’ homes and/or criminal prosecution.
Maybe there are legitimate reasons for the clear double standard in Trump’s case that have not yet been revealed. Then again “maybe” the raid on Mar-a-Lago was just the next episode of the TDS-riddled Democrat Party’s never-ending witch hunt against Trump.
A witch hunt that began before Donald Trump was even sworn into office.