The only correct answer for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, politically speaking, and he passed the test.
The unprecedented and heavy-handed FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home on Monday leaves a lot to be unpacked and understood, but the move itself is provocative beyond words.
After the raid was confirmed by Trump by email statement and via Truth Social, reports started trickling out that the heart of the issue could be a dispute over records with the National Archives. Trump has been legally battling the federal agency since leaving office but had come to a settlement earlier this year. If that’s the case, what possibly transpired to send FBI agents kicking in doors and cracking safes for one of Joe Biden’s political opponents?
As DeSantis notes, the FBI doesn’t exactly have a sterling record when it comes to objectivity or equal justice. People like the Clintons and Bidens skate free while Trump gets a raid over documents?
Shortly after the FBI executed a search warrant on the former president’s home, DeSantis took to Twitter to criticize the move, including tying the search to the Senate’s passing of the $740 billion tax, health care and climate change legislation.
“The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves,” DeSantis, who could have his eyes set on a 2024 White House bid, wrote. “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”
Since the 2016 election when the Justice Department and federal law enforcement turned into political tools for the Obama administration and then the Clinton presidential campaign, few on the right side of the aisle have much trust left in the FBI.
The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) August 9, 2022
It is within this lens that having the FBI actually storm into the home of the top 2024 Republican presidential prospect seems like an inexcusable move both politically and for the good of the country as a whole.
If ever there was any doubt that Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray were more inclined to spend resources persecuting Republicans than prosecuting criminal behavior on, say, the southern border, it’s this.
The two-tier justice system that pursues classified documents (allegedly) at Mar-A-Lago but wholly ignores troves of classified documents handled improperly by Hillary Clinton on a private email server further fuels the image of a political swamp at the Justice Department.
When it was revealed that Hillary delete some 33,000 emails that were supposed to be archived and saved, but received no admonishment for it, was the beginning of the road that ended on Monday at Mar-A-Lago.
As many pointed out at the time of the Hillary email scandal, if any lower-level State Department employee had mishandled a handful of documents the way Clinton did with thousands, they would’ve been immediately fired and likely prosecuted.
The other possibility, regarding Trump, is that the raid stories about the National Archives and the document battle are a cover for something deeper, perhaps related to the sham January 6th committee. The committee itself already admitted as such that it was a political show and wouldn’t be referring prosecutions to the Attorney General. That could be a smokescreen, however, if other forces in the Biden administration wish to use the information to further attack Trump and prevent him from running in 2024.
We still don’t know exactly what is in the warrant executed in the wee hours of Monday morning at Mar-A-Lago, but we do know the history and political leanings of the people in charge of the Justice Department and their propensity to use federal resources for “weaponization,” as DeSantis said, against political opponents.
If the FBI wanted to raid Hunter Biden’s drug-filled Malibu home, would Merrick Garland sign off on it?
Not a chance.
