There are at least two sides to every story, as we know. And, in fairness, the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago yesterday has no known connection to any attempt by anyone to overturn any election anywhere. If you think all of this completely coincidental “destruction of crucial evidence,” by Secret Service, by the never confirmed acting heads of the Department of Homeland Security, by the winking slightly partisan Inspector General of DHS, by the Department of Defense, by White House log keepers, in any way justifies government agents searching an ex-president’s home, and even his safe, you need to hear a complete defense for why that FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago was, to some, much worse than the so-called riot on January 6th and all the alleged plans appurtenant thereto. Here we go, my best attempt to distill the story as told in defense of the man whose home was searched:

In an unprecedented attack, not seen since Nazi Germany, the private home of an innocent man was overrun by agents of a hostile political party! It was a private home. There was no justification for a partisan storming of the man’s house. The man had already been completely acquitted and exonerated of all charges at two previous trials, which were brought only to hurt him because his enemies knew he was actually right. He was totally exonerated both times. There was never any evidence against him, certainly not at either purely political “trial” and there is no evidence now, and no evidence was ever destroyed and nobody ever lied on his behalf in a court of law or anywhere else (and Stone and Manafort were both pardoned and whatever they were accused of or convicted for never happened, smart ass). He himself also never lied, in the true harmful sense of the word, but those who hate him, and by extension all good legacy Americans, constantly lie, in the most evil and destructive way!

There will be revenge for this deplorable gazpacho attack, we’re taking names and kicking asses because we are not idiots and we’re justifiably angry as hell. Long live our holy party and our righteous cause! Fuck communism!

Here’s a much more intellectual version, for your consideration.

An op ed in today’s Washington Bezos, entitled  “Trump should make the search warrant public”  (https://wapo.st/3SDW9bx) begins:

There is little doubt that the residence and offices of a former president can be subjected to lawful searches and seizures. Anyone doubting this should read the opinion of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in 2020’s Trump v. Vance as well as the concurrence by Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

In that case, a New York state grand jury subpoena had been served on the president’s longtime accounting firm for the president’s papers. The Vance opinions review all the relevant precedents involving Thomas Jefferson, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton. The justices, including the dissenters, agreed that not all criminal subpoenas of a sitting president were barred. “On that point the Court is unanimous,” the chief justice concluded.

If a sitting president is in some circumstances subject to criminal subpoenas from state officials, a former president can most certainly be subjected to criminal process by federal agents. This has never happened before, but as with all things Trump, the past is no guide to the present.

shortly afterwards, the legal analysis takes a sudden turn, with an announcement of what one side

rightly believes:

Most Republicans rightly believe that Trump has been unfairly targeted by civil servants motivated by partisanship going back years, long before his stunning election in 2016 and certainly thereafter. The “Steele dossier,” now thoroughly discredited, the charges of collusion with Russia debunked by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, and the allegations of obstruction of justice dismissed as insubstantial by Attorney General William P. Barr all helped create an automatic suspicion on the right of this latest search.

punchline:

Opinion by Hugh Hewit

Hugh Hewitt is a nationally syndicated radio host on the Salem Radio Network. He is also a professor at Chapman University School of Law, where he has taught constitutional law since 1996. 

Aha! Colleague (former) of onetime dean of Chapman, John Eastman, Esq. (dismissed by Chapman after his central role in January 6 plan became public.)

Now go back and read the news reports, you’ll have a better perspective, having heard another side of the story.