Mar-a-Lawfare: Three years later, the left’s war on Trump still shocks

The FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago three years ago Friday was partisan lawfare that must never happen again. 

It was on Aug. 8, 2022 that 30 FBI agents, armed and authorized to use deadly force, raided the home of then-former President Donald Trump — with the blessing of his successor, then-President Joe Biden.

The absurdly broad raid warrant covered “any government and/or Presidential Records” dated during the years of Trump’s presidency, and “containers/boxes . . . collectively stored” near classified documents.

According to the FBI raid affidavit, Trump possessed “Presidential records subject to record retention requirements”  — an odd claim, given that presidents have an established right to designate records as “personal records.” 

In fact, under the Presidential Records Act, only the president decides which records are presidential and which are personal.

Odder still, one would expect a search warrant to be based on alleged violations of criminal law.

But this one wasn’t, because the Presidential Records Act is a purely civil statute.

The FBI also claimed that Trump violated the Espionage Act because he refused to return classified documents after the National Archives demanded them. 

Yet the FBI had no evidence to support that Trump knew the boxes sent to his home contained classified information. 

To get around this inconvenient fact, the Department of Justice tried to thread the needle by arguing Trump “caused” the boxes to be packed, attempting to make him appear just as guilty as if he knew their contents.

Attorney General Merrick Garland also ignored the only existing precedent, which involved President Ronald Reagan. 

After leaving office, Reagan kept classified material from his presidency in his home — and while the Justice Department was aware of this situation, it took no action. 

Since this precedent worked in Trump’s favor, the Biden DOJ conveniently ignored it. 

Similarly, given the president’s unique position in our constitutional system, the Supreme Court has ruled that certain laws should not apply to a president unless that law explicitly specifies otherwise. 

The Espionage Act does not contain such language, but the DOJ ignored that inconvenient fact, too.

Ironically, while Biden’s administration was weaponizing criminal law against Trump, Biden himself was caught red-handed with more than 130 classified documents — that we know of — dating from his vice presidency and his tenure as a senator. 

Biden kept these sensitive documents in his personal Washington, DC, office and all over his Wilmington, Del., home, some of them in file folders labeled with Biden’s own handwriting.

No legal compulsion was sought in Biden’s case, even though Biden told his ghostwriter in 2017, “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” 

In other words, he confessed on tape.

Pundits defended the different handling of the two cases on the grounds that Biden cooperated with investigators, while Trump did not. 

But Biden “cooperated” with a rigged process, designed by his own administration.

That process allowed Biden’s lawyers to sweep and search the crime scenes — after classified documents were discovered, and after a criminal case was opened — before any FBI searches took place. 

At one point, a Biden White House lawyer intervened in the chain of custody of a classified document, seizing it from the FBI because the then-president had not consented to the FBI’s possession.

This double standard is nothing short of breathtaking.

Where Trump was charged for merely “causing” boxes to be packed, Biden was specifically not charged because he “did not move the files himself” and “depended on staffers.”

With Trump, the Reagan precedent was ignored; with Biden, it was upheld due to “basic principles of notice and fairness.”

For Trump, the Supreme Court’s “express statement” doctrine, that certain laws should not apply to a president unless expressly stated, was ignored. 

For Biden, the DOJ applied this doctrine — historically extended to include vice presidents — and declined prosecution to avoid “significant separation of powers concerns.”

Prosecutors charged Trump with 40 felonies — effectively life in prison. 

Prosecutors charged Biden with nothing.

Those now angrily denouncing Trump for enforcing US laws — laws he is duty-bound to enforce — fully supported forging the justice system into a guillotine to lop off Trump’s head. 

Because they don’t really care about law. 

And they don’t really care about justice.

They only care about power.

Regaining power — and retaining it.

Tom Cotton represents Arkansas in the US Senate.