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Republicans demand FBI release Trump search affidavit — Analysis

He is backed by his supporters who want to prove that the extraordinary move against former President was justifiable

Republican lawmakers are demanding the affidavit used as the basis for the search warrant issued for former US President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home be unsealed, arguing the extraordinary step of sending the FBI in to seize documents from a former president’s residence requires proof of equally extraordinary justification. 

The affidavit could be unsealed. “show that this was not just a fishing expedition, that they had due cause to go in and to do this, that they did exhaust all other means,”On Sunday, Republican Senator Mike Rounds said to NBC. 

Brian Fitzpatrick (R.Pennsylvania), a former FBI agent, and Republican Representative, said that the search was illegal. “an unprecedented action that needs to be supported by unprecedented justification,”It was suggested that the probable cause affidavit sufficed even though it was not shown to Congress members in a classified briefing.

“I’ve encouraged all my colleagues on the left and the right to reserve judgment and not get ahead of yourself because we don’t know what that document contains. It’s going to answer a lot of questions,” Fitzpatrick claimed.

It’s doubtful such a closed briefing would satisfy the president’s supporters, however. Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security report that threats have been made against FBI agents, and other federal officials on social media. 

On Friday, the bulletin cited an article by one of these outfits. “increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI headquarters and issuing general calls for ‘civil war’ and ‘armed rebellion.’”There were some threats “specific in identifying proposed targets, tactics, or weaponry,” the memo claimed, adding that targets’ home addresses and names of family members had been posted online as well.


Purported purpose of Trump FBI raid revealed

Military veteran Ricky Shiffer was gunned down in a field in Wilmington, Ohio after supposedly threatening to kill federal agents outside the FBI’s Cincinnati Field Office. The agency knew him from the fact that he had attended the Capitol protest on January 6. However, a spokesperson for Fox News said they received tips about him. “did not contain a specific and credible threat.” Shiffer’s social media posts encouraged his followers to “kill the FBI on sight” .

Despite the rising tide of partisan unrest, Democrats appeared wholly uninterested in unsealing the affidavit, with House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-California) instead demanding an assessment of potential damage done to national security by Trump’s possession of the classified documents that were seized by the FBI. “The fact that they were in an unsecured place that is guarded with nothing more than a padlock, or whatever security they had at a hotel, is deeply alarming,”Schiff stated.

However, it’s not clear what the party hopes to gain by further antagonizing Trump and his supporters. Last week’s raid seems only to have solidified the Republican Party’s support for him, pushing them ever closer to a united front behind a still-undeclared comeback campaign. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D.Minnesota), acknowledged this when she suggested that Congress instead permit the Justice Department. “make a decision about what happened here, why it happened, and if it rises to the level of a crime.”

On Friday, the FBI released a search warrant that revealed 11 sets of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago. It also cited potential Espionage Act violations to be the probable reason the FBI had to perform the search. A search warrant could have been released to the public if the source of information was revealed. Some of these documents could be classified and approval would therefore be required from a federal judge.

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