The news of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, the most aggressive law enforcement action ever taken against a former American president, broke last night in the most understated way imaginable. Peter Schorsch of FlordiaPolitics.com just tweeted it out : "Scoop — The Federal Bureau of Investigation @FBI today executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, two sources confirm to @Fla_Pol." (Not even an all caps "SCOOP!") In an age where bragging about reporterial prowess is normal, Schorsch was charmingly humble: "Not sure what the search warrant was about. TBH, I'm not a strong enough reporter to hunt this down, but it's real." It was indeed real, as DONALD TRUMP confirmed within the hour. "[M]y beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents," the former president said in a lengthy statement. "They even broke into my safe!" The backstory, as outlined in a February letter from DAVID S. FERRIERO, the Archivist of the United States, to Rep. CAROLYN MALONEY (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform: Throughout 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration "had ongoing communications with the representatives of former President Trump" about boxes of White House records he stashed at his home in West Palm Beach. NARA recovered 15 boxes in January, including items the agency identified as "marked as classified national security information." The discovery of classified material triggered NARA staff to report their findings to the Department of Justice. That's when things got serious for Trump. NYT's Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Adam Goldman : "Federal prosecutors subsequently began a grand jury investigation, according to two people briefed on the matter. Prosecutors issued a subpoena earlier this year to the archives to obtain the boxes of classified documents, according to the two people familiar with the matter. "The authorities also made interview requests to people who worked in the White House in the final days of Mr. Trump's presidency, according to one of the people. "In the spring, a small coterie of federal agents visited Mar-a-Lago in search of some documents, according to a person familiar with the meeting. At least one of the agents was involved in counterintelligence, according to the person." Trump suggested that he was continuing to work with FARA and DOJ on the matter, and was thus dumbfounded by the swarm of FBI agents that spent hours combing through materials Monday in Mar-a-Lago while Trump was away in Manhattan. "After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate," his statement said. But that cooperation by Trump gave agents the justification they needed to obtain their warrant, according to the Miami Herald : "Federal agents were able to establish probable cause for the warrant because Trump and his lawyers had already turned over some classified documents that had been sought by the National Archives and Records Administration, the source said. Agents suspected that Trump was unlawfully holding other classified documents from his presidency in his private club and residence at Mar-a-Lago, which is the crux of the investigation led by the FBI and Justice Department in Washington, D.C. "During Monday's raid, FBI agents worked in 'taint' teams while gathering and separating the alleged classified materials to ensure that none was privileged correspondence between Trump and his lawyers, which would be off limits to investigators and prosecutors." "DISQUALIFIED"? — One perplexing aspect of the Mar-a-Lago search, at least to some legal analysts, is that the crime reportedly being investigated does not seem to match the unprecedented tactic of an FBI raid on a former president's residence. "If they raided his home just to find classified documents he took from The White House," one legal expert noted, "he will be re-elected president in 2024, hands down. It will prove to be the greatest law enforcement mistake in history." There was a burst of excitement on Democratic legal Twitter after MARC ELIAS pointed out that one of the penalties for violating the statute on improper handling of government records is being "disqualified from holding any office under the United States." But as NYT's Charlie Savage expertly explains , that issue was well-ventilated back when conservatives wanted to throw Hillary Clinton in jail for allegedly violating the same law and many scholars concluded that, as applied to a presidential candidate, it's unconstitutional because the Constitution alone sets the eligibility criteria for the presidency. (Former Attorney General MICHAEL MUKASEY was a fan of this theory but Savage notes that he later recanted .) WHO SIGNED THE WARRANT? — A "source said FBI agents obtained a search warrant from a federal magistrate judge in West Palm Beach," report Miami Herald's Alex Roarty, Michael Wilner and Jay Weaver . According to its website , the West Palm Beach location of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has three Magistrates: Judge Bruce Reinhart, Judge William Matthewman and Judge Ryon McCabe. The court's online database shows two recent warrant applications, both assigned to Reinhart, were entered into its system on Monday, though information about the targets of those warrants is sealed. GOP REACTION — The immediate political impact in the GOP was a rally to Trump's defense. "Trump is winning the FBI-raid caucus going away," Rich Lowry tweeted , "we'll learn more, but this is his best day in pursuit of the 2024 nomination in a long time." CBS' Robert Costa reported , "Some allies are urging him to speed up his decision on 2024 in the wake of this, that no one in [the] GOP will challenge him now … others are telling him to stay cool, wait." On Fox News, ERIC TRUMP , who said he informed his father of the raid, said publicly for the first time that he now wanted his father to run for president again. House members, senators, 2022 nominees, and potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates flooded social media with condemnation of President JOE BIDEN, MERRICK GARLAND and the FBI and in solidarity with Trump. But there was one corner of the GOP establishment notable for its restraint: Senate Republican leadership. Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL (R-Ky.), Whip JOHN THUNE (R-S.D.), Republican Conference Chairman JOHN BARRASSO (R-Wyoming), Republican Policy Committee Chairman ROY BLUNT (R-Mo.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference JONI ERNST (R-Iowa) all refrained from tweeting about the raid as of early this morning. The silence did not go unnoticed. On Fox News Monday night, MARK LEVIN attacked the Senate leadership for not speaking out. There was one leadership exception: Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman RICK SCOTT tweeted , "The @FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago is incredibly concerning, especially given the Biden admin's history of going after parents & other political opponents. This is 3rd World country stuff. We need answers NOW. The FBI must explain what they were doing today & why." Many other GOP senators echoed Scott, including Kentucky's RAND PAUL ( "outrageous and unjust" ), Tennessee's MARSHA BLACKBURN ( "I stand with President Trump" ), Florida's MARCO RUBIO (like "3rd world Marxist dictatorships" ), South Carolina's LINDSEY GRAHAM ( "launching such an investigation of a former President this close to an election is beyond problematic" ) and Kansas' ROGER MARSHALL ( "no one is safe from political persecution" ). As for 2024 aspirants, Sens. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) and JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.) didn't tweet. But Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas), Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS and South Dakota Gov. KRISTI NOEM did. Desantis called the raid "another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime's political opponents." Noem said it was "un-American." Cruz hit all of these notes and many more in a thread that ended with "4/x," suggesting he may pick things up this morning. Most GOP House members commenting about the raid took it as a given that it was politically motivated. The tone was set from the top. "I've seen enough," House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY tweeted . "The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar." Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE called the raid "a brazen weaponization of the FBI by Biden's DOJ against his political opponent." Republican Conference Chairman Rep. ELISE STEFANIK (R-N.Y.) said, "The FBI's raid on President Trump's Florida home is a dark day in American history. The political weaponization of the FBI and Department of Justice is an actual threat to democracy." The FBI, she said, is a "corrupt agency." Rep. JIM BANKS (R-Ind.), the Republican Study Committee chair who wants to be majority whip if the GOP takes the House, spoke for many of his colleagues by dragging the president's son into the drama: "HUNTER BIDEN skates free while DOJ executes a political plot to destroy lives of political opponents." Rep. ANDY BIGGS (R-Ariz.) compared Biden to MUAMMAR GADDAFI . Rep. GREG STEUBE (R-Fla.) said America "has become a totalitarian state." Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) tweeted, "DEFUND THE FBI." Rep. PAUL GOSAR (R-Ariz.) tweeted, "We must destroy the FBI." Texas Rep. LOUIE GOHMERT, perhaps aware of the surge of violent rhetoric emanating from online Trump forums — "as violent as I've seen them since before January 6th," per NBC's Ben Collins — appealed for calm . "Do not let this lawless government provoke violence," he tweeted. "They will use it to declare more emergencies, perhaps even take more of our liberties, and attempt to steal the upcoming election, and make this the totalitarian, Orwellian police state toward which they have been moving us." Republican candidates and groups, such as the RNC and J.D. VANCE , immediately used the raid to raise money last night. After firing off his own FBI-themed fundraising appeals, Trump ended Monday by calling into an Alaska rally for SARAH PALIN. "This was a strange day," he told the crowd. Good Tuesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade , Eugene Daniels , Ryan Lizza .
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