By any measure, the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was an extraordinary move — search warrants aren’t normally executed at the homes of former US presidents.
Even Richard Nixon received a subpoena for the Watergate tapes that helped doom his presidency.
The risk for Trump is obvious. It’s yet another legal case hanging over a re-election bid in 2024 he’s poised to announce. Put simply, being president gives the kind of immunity he is sorely missing these days.
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But the federal probe into whether he removed classified documents from the White House will just as easily further radicalize his base.
As with the congressional hearings into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, Trump will fire up his MAGA fans by casting himself as the victim of a political witch hunt by the Washington establishment.
The raid comes at an awkward time for Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, threatening to divert attention from political momentum gained by the president’s Democratic allies with the Senate passage of a $430 billion climate, energy and tax bill ahead of congressional midterm elections in November.
Trump, already facing numerous federal and state investigations, immediately described the probe as “the weaponization of the Justice System.”
Legal experts are still debating whether a conviction on removing classified materials would be enough to block another Trump run for the presidency. While Republican lawmakers are split over the wisdom of backing his candidacy, many supporters remain devoted to him.
However the investigation develops, the search of Trump’s home by federal agents will be red meat to those followers and ensure that America’s toxic political divide will only get nastier. — Karl Maier