Commentary
The New York Post raises good questions in an editorial on Aug. 11 about the shocking FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago: “Why was it so urgent to retrieve possible classified documents? What led a federal judge to OK raiding a former president’s home? And why exactly did [Attorney General Merrick] Garland personally approve the raid? (Without, he says, even alerting the White House.)”
We may assume that what transpired was a political move. Everyone in the relevant chain of command, from President Joe Biden on down, probably knew about the raid in advance. Since the former president was cooperating in handing over classified material to the FBI, which in some cases he himself had declassified, there was no security need for this armed raid. It involved ransacking Trump’s property, breaking open his safe, making a mess of Mrs. Trump’s wardrobe, and behaving in a surly manner toward those who were present when the raid occurred….