🚓 This Must Be The (Totally New) Place

In an unprecedented move, the FBI raided the home of former president Donald Trump last Monday in connection with an ongoing investigation involving several documents moved from the White House to the private residence. Then, in a similarly unprecedented move, US Attorney General Merrick Garland asked a federal court last week to unseal the warrant so that the department could be as transparent as possible with the American public who had “substantial” interest in the matter. The move came as Trump and his defenders attacked the DOJ and FBI, though Garland said, “I will not stand by silently when [the FBI's] integrity is unfairly attacked.”

• Search warrants are typically never made public before criminal charges are brought forth, but the AG's move signals the extremely delicate and high-stakes nature of this case. 

• For his part, Trump stated that he would not oppose the unsealing, but rather was “encouraging the immediate release of those documents” from what he called the “unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in,” reports The Guardian.

Intensification of Threats

The FBI's actions and Trump's response has triggered a fury of threats against federal law enforcement from members of Congress to ordinary Americans. According to The New York Times, shortly before AG Garland's speech, the former president tried to send a message to Garland saying that he “had been checking in with people around the country and found them to be enraged by the search.”

On Thursday, a Trump supporter who potentially participated in the January 6th insurrection attacked an FBI field office in Cincinnati, OH. Shortly before the assailant posted to Truth Social that, “if you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I.” and that he wanted a “call to arms” against the FBI asking followers to “be ready for combat.” In Congress, Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Paul Gosar have called for “destroying or defunding the FBI,” reports Politico.

The Verdict

It seems that each point in this story is a further twist open on a can of worms. Will Trump be prosecuted? Will he be sent to jail? Will more violence and discord be sown? Calling this unprecedented feels trite (even saying it’s trite feels so!) but the truth is, the American Democratic experiment is facing a test it has never faced before