Trump arrested: Mar-a-Lago raid dispute impacts defense.

Trump’s Legal Team Prepares Defense Focused on Double Standard Claims

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team is gearing up for his defense, which appears to be centered around claims of a double standard. The specifics of the FBI’s decision to raid his home last year could become a key element of their argument.

“The decision to pursue charges against President Trump while turning a blind eye to others is emblematic of the corruption that we have here,”

– Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys

Testimony from a top FBI agent at the time of the August 2022 raid of Mar-a-Lago could provide fodder for that argument. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan revealed snippets of transcribed answers provided to the committee by a former FBI official involved with the case.

Dispute Over Raid Execution

In his conversation with the committee, the former FBI official detailed the concerns he’d raised last year with Justice Department officials who pushed to handle the raid more aggressively than he felt necessary. Among other objections, he felt the FBI should have sought consent from Trump’s lawyers before searching Trump’s home, recalling that he felt “there was a good likelihood that [they] could have gotten consent” had they asked before the raid.

Whether Trump’s legal team could use this as a building block in its construction of a case focused on law enforcement misconduct remains unclear. A lawyer for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment.

Difficulty of Fighting Charges

Trump’s legal team is struggling to lock down other defense lawyers in Florida, in part because of the presence of a controversial aide on the team. The difficulty of fighting the charges as detailed by prosecutors could also affect the makeup of Trump’s defense.

Andrew McCarthy, a former U.S. attorney, noted that just because the Justice Department’s approach to the raid was heavy-handed, that does not mean it was against the law. “They got a judicial search warrant, so there was solid legal basis for the search,” McCarthy told the Washington Examiner. “The fact that they might have been able to use a less aggressive tactic doesn’t mean the tactic they used was illegal.”

Trump said in a statement after the August 2022 raid that the move was “not necessary or appropriate” because, he said, his team had been “working and cooperating with the relevant government agencies” for months. Still, objecting to the execution of the raid could bolster the Trump team’s efforts to paint a picture of a politicized Justice Department.

Dispute Over Raid Execution

The Justice Department’s specific evidence for executing an unannounced raid, rather than the consensual searches afforded to Biden after he found classified documents in unauthorized locations, remains unclear. While the Justice Department unsealed the affidavit supporting the search warrant last year, much of the document was redacted, concealing precisely why officials believed a raid was necessary to prevent disruption to the investigation.

Speaking to the House Judiciary Committee last week, the former FBI agent said he raised alarms that the FBI would be “left holding the bag again” if the Justice Department insisted on executing the search warrant without following what he said were standard procedures for such a case.

The raid ultimately led to the publication of widely circulated pictures showing classified documents strewn on Mar-a-Lago’s floors and laid the foundation for what has become a serious federal case against Trump.

D’Antuono does not appear to be a Trump partisan, which could help shield him from efforts to discredit him should the dispute over the raid become an issue in the trial.

Bratt, by contrast, appears to have donated to Democratic groups and campaigns over the years, and his comments about the Trump aide lawyer’s judgeship application appear likely to become a top issue.

Key Takeaways:

• Trump’s legal team is preparing a defense focused on claims of a double standard.
• The specifics of the FBI’s decision to raid his home last year could become a key element of their argument.
• The former FBI official detailed the concerns he’d raised last year with Justice Department officials who pushed to handle the raid more aggressively than he felt necessary.
• The Justice Department’s specific evidence for executing an unannounced raid, rather than the consensual searches afforded to Biden after he found classified documents in unauthorized locations, remains unclear.

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