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(AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
The FBI's Mar-a-Lago warrant: One classified file meant an entire box could be seized.
AP
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Merrick Garland, Attorney General: Did he seek to "narrowly scope" any search undertaken?
AP
Although Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that the DOJ seeks to "narrowly scope any search that is undertaken," details of the warrant reveal agents had the authority to seize entire boxes of records – including those potentially covered by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege – if just a single document inside the container were marked with a classified marking.
Agents were allowed to also seize any containers or boxes "found together with" ones containing classified papers, according to ATTACHMENT B ("Property to be seized") of the warrant. In addition, the FBI agents were given the authority to confiscate "any government and/or presidential records created between Jan. 20, 2017, and Jan. 20, 2021," which covers Trump's full term in office. That meant they were able to take any item related to the Trump administration.
All told, dozens of boxes and containers were removed from Trump's residence, very few of which actually contained classified information, the sources said.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Bratt has given exclusively to Democrats, including at least $800 to the Democratic National Committee. The sources said he is close to David Laufman, whom he replaced as the top counterintelligence official at Justice. An Obama donor, Laufman helped oversee the Russiagate probe, as well as the Clinton email case, which also involved classified information.
wiggin.com
David Laufman: "Mastermind" behind the strategy to dust off and "weaponize" the Foreign Agents Registration Act against Trump. Is a similar strategy afoot now?
wiggin.com
A Senate investigator told RCI that Laufman was the "mastermind" behind the strategy to dust off and "weaponize" the rarely enforced statutory relic – the Foreign Agents Registration Act – against Trump campaign officials, a novel legal move that the investigator noted is similar to the department's current attempts to enforce the Presidential Records Act against Trump – which is a civil, not a criminal, statute – by invoking the Espionage Act of 1917.
Laufman signed off on the wiretapping of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, which the Department of Justice inspector general determined was conducted under false pretenses involving doctored email, suppression of exculpatory evidence, and other malfeasance.
Suddenly resurfacing as a media surrogate for the Justice Department defending the Mar-a-Lago raid, Laufman has been a key source for stories by the Washington Post, CNN, and other outlets.
On CNN, for instance, he claimed the documents seized from Trump's storage were "particularly stunning and particularly egregious," and their discovery "completely validates the government's investigation" into the former president – though he quickly added, "Whether this investigation transforms into an outright criminal prosecution remains to be seen."
Swecker said that there is strong reason to fear that the FBI's counterintelligence division might politicize this case.
"For sure, the FBI has dug themselves into a huge hole because of how they handled the Clinton (email) case and then Crossfire Hurricane and Hunter Biden," Swecker said. "Myself and many of my colleagues think they are treading on very thin ice here."
"Unfortunately," he added, "you can't recuse an entire FBI division."