This is the text of a letter I just sent to the Everett Herald, the local newspaper in Snohomish County, Washington, where I live.
I am hearing a great deal of nonsense
about the FBI executing a search warrant at Donald Trump’s home and resort
Mar-A-Lago. I have heard it called Gestapo tactics. I have heard it called
worse than McCarthyism. Former president Donald Trump has called it a
politically motivated witch hunt. The truth appears to be that the FBI
submitted an affidavit to a federal judge or magistrate that contended that
there was reasonable cause to believe that there was evidence of a crime at the
place to be searched. The judge or magistrate agreed and issued a search
warrant. The FBI executed the warrant. They searched the subject premises and
took material they believed to be related to the crime in question. Nothing in
law enforcement could be more routine. Yes, the FBI sent a large number of
agents and vehicles to Mar-A-Lago. Yes, what they did was dramatic. There is no
evidence that it was in any legally improper. As a legal matter the FBI’s
motivation for seeking and executing the warrant is irrelevant provided that its
agents complied with the law for obtaining and executing it. There is nothing
improper about the FBI pursuing a case in which a person may be in possession
of classified material illegally. That’s their job. Yes, the subject of the
warrant in this case was a former president of the United States. Legally,
however, he was only a private American citizen at the time the warrant was
executed. The same law applies to him that applies to all of us. The FBI may or
may not have been politically motivated. The hysterical response to what they
did clearly is. Everyone should just calm down and let the FBI’s criminal
investigation run its legal course. That’s how the rule of law works.
Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Sorenson, JD
919 Perkins Way
Sultan, WA 98294
425-268-0649
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