Raid on Trump’s Home Reminds Us That We’re Targets, Too
Dark forces within the government want more than just Trump; they want power and control over everyone
If the government wants me and other writers to quit talking about conspiracy theories, then they really need to quit doing things that smack of conspiracies.
The latest incident triggering my thoughts is Monday’s FBI raid on President Donald Trump’s palatial home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla. The reason for the raid, according to sources, is that the National Archives believe he may have taken some official documents from the White House when he left on Jan. 20, 2021.
What’s the big deal about the documents? Well, any official or classified documents are to be stored in the National Archives for posterity. It is not unusual that a President leaving office may, quite unintentionally in the haste to pack up and move out, have a document or two belonging in the Archives shuffled in among his personal papers.
According to Trump’s son, Eric, the Trump family had been cooperating with the National Archives on this. In fact, CBS reported in February that the Archives had received 15 boxes from Trump that they could sort through. (One report said these boxes had originally been sent to Trump by another government agency, but I haven’t seen any corroboration of this.) We can assume, since nothing has been reported on the matter, that they didn’t find any documents that belonged to the Archives in those boxes. But apparently they felt there were more boxes to sort through.
Which brings up the question – why conduct a raid with 30 FBI agents to find these documents when a subpoena or even a simple request could have granted them have access?
It’s a question some of the country’s best lawyers haven’t been able to answer.
What Were They Looking For?
According to reports, the FBI didn’t just go for the documents in question (if there were documents in question – no one seems to know exactly what they were looking for) – the agents rifled through every room of the house, randomly grabbing items and throwing them into 30 boxes. They also brought along a safe cracker to open a safe, which turned out to be empty.
If you’re familiar with the Constitution, you know that this probably is illegal in itself. The Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
It's hard to believe the agents had a warrant that allowed them to randomly grab anything they wanted. As the Fourth Amendment says, the warrant would have to have specified what was to be seized.
But perhaps their wanton search was due to a desperation to find something, anything, that Trump may have taken from the White House that he wasn’t authorized to have. Why? Because according the U.S. Legal Code, title 18, subsection 2071, anyone who “conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States” is to be fined or jailed.
In addition, and this is the most important part to the Democrats, anyone who does any of the above is barred from ever again holding public office (some Constitutional scholars, though, believe the Constitution itself would overrule this part of the code).
So now you may be seeing where I’m going with the conspiracy theory.
Their Reason to be Afraid
The warrant involving this many FBI agents could not have been executed without at least some involvement of the FBI director Christopher Wray or the Attorney General Merrick Garland. It’s even unlikely that raiding the home of a former and potential Presidential candidate could have been done without the knowledge of President Joe Biden.
The Democrats have been trying for years to remove Trump from public office, first attacking him for colluding with Russia to win the 2016 election, a charge which has been proven to be fraudulent, then impeaching him twice on allegations of minor issues, which failed twice, and most recently trying to tie him to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as part of a scheme to overthrow the government.
The Jan. 6 allegations are obviously dead now, which is why they are looking for something, anything, that could thwart his attempt at winning another presidential term.
They have reason to be afraid that he could succeed in 2024. Biden is a shell of a man who may not be able to finish out his term; vice president Kamala Harris has performed so badly she doesn’t even have support of most Democrats anymore. Various polls have shown that Trump would easily win the Republican primary, and likely would beat Biden, Harris or most any other candidate the Democrats would pit against him.
But while that is a political scheme, it hardly seems like a conspiracy to have a theory about. But, of course, there’s more to the story.
More to the Story
On Sunday, less than 24 hours before the raid on Mar-a-Lago, the Senate narrowly passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to pass the House and be signed into law. Among other things, like raising taxes on everyone, the act also provides funds for the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents. Ostensibly, this is to go after all the billionaire tax cheats, although that would be nearly 1,000 agents for each billionaire.
This comes on the heels of other legislation that would ban American citizens from owning a wide array of semi-automatic guns, in direct violation of the Second Amendment. But Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida recently sounded the alarm that the IRS is stockpiling guns (like the ones we’re not supposed to own) and ammunition. According to a 2019 report, by 2017 the IRS already possessed 4,500 guns and five million rounds of ammunition; Gaetz said that in just a few months this year the IRS purchased another five million rounds.
Now you see the formation of the conspiracy theory. Evil people are trying to remove Trump from being able to run for President. Failing that, they will intimidate anyone who supports him through tax audits – do you think, if they can raid Mar-a-Lago and cart off boxes of items looking for anything illegal, that they couldn’t do the same to an ordinary citizen like you and me? Especially if we’re unarmed but they are?
Trump Warned Us
President Trump once told the American people, “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.” That’s never been truer than it is today.
And yet, there is still room for hope that we can mobilize for change. Trump also said, “Never forget everything this corrupt establishment is doing to me is all about preserving their power and control over the American people. We must never forget that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you.”
It does belong to us and we still have the power to vote. Perhaps no vote in American history has been more critical than the one in November. There is a real chance that if Americans – not just Republican but anyone who wants to protect our Constitution and our way of life – vote against the corrupt establishment that conservatives can rule in the House and the Senate. That would go a long way to tamping down the power these people have over us.
And it’ll be a good way to finally stop the government from doing the shady things that spawn conspiracy theories.