The Regime Wants Its RevengeWhat’s the meaning of the Mar-a-Lago raid?
Bradley Devlin
Aug 9, 2022
The people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they can’t, and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again,” wrote Michael Anton in Compact Magazine on July 28. “You don’t have to imagine. They tell you every day.”
Less than two weeks later, former President Donald Trump released a statement saying that Mar-a-Lago, the Florida club that functions as his primary residence, was “currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents."
"Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate," Trump’s statement continued.
"Such an assault could only take place in broke, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before. They even broke into my safe!" Trump added.
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Dr. John Eastman, the founding director of The Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, told The American Conservative via email that there is no lawful justification for this unprecedented raid on a former president's residence. "What I suspect is going on is a fishing expedition," Eastman claimed. "They can’t just get a warrant for all his records—that would be an unconstitutional 'general warrant' that the Fourth Amendment was specifically written to prohibit. But using the National Archives Act as a pretext, they now can rummage through and see what they can find."
"Hopefully the courts will soon put a stop to this egregiously unconstitutional conduct," Eastman said.
While violations of the Presidential Records Act do not carry their own harsh penalties, other criminal statutes could come into play. U.S. law forbids individuals from “willfully injur[ing] or commit[ting] any depredation against any property of the United States." Public office holders who, “willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates or destroys … any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited," could also be slapped with criminal charges. The former carries a fine and up to one year in prison, the latter, up to three.
The second aforementioned statute also includes a provision that says those convicted of mutilating or destroying these records are, “disqualified from holding any office under the United States.” But in the 1969 case of Powell v. McCormack, the Supreme Court found that Article I’s Qualifications of Members Clause include the only reasons why a member of the House of Representatives that has been duly-elected may be prevented from holding office. While Powell v. McCormack dealt with members of Congress and not the president, the same logic probably applies to Article II, Section I, and likely renders the statutes provision of disqualification for public office unconstitutional.
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"This is the Empire Strikes Back," Eastman told TAC. "Trump and his supporters interfered with the Hillary coronation plans in 2016, then had the temerity to think that the American people still controlled the direction of their government. The peasants are in revolt, and have to be cowered back into submission."
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-regime-wants-its-revenge/