On Monday, a guest on CNN condemned the Department of Justice for its lack of transparency over the raid of former President Donald Trump’s Florida Estate, Mar-a-Lago.
“I think ultimately Merrick Garland’s job here is to get buy-in from the American public that the investigation has been conducted fairly and transparently, and ultimately the American people are the jury on this case,” said former federal prosecutor John P. Fishwick Jr.
“They need to know what the evidence is against a former president,” Fishwick continued. “Yes, a former president of the United States is different. We have to treat that person differently. And we need to make sure that Donald Trump is treated the same as Joe Biden would be treated if he left office.”
The FBI executed a search warrant on Trump’s Florida home as part of an investigation into the removal of classified materials from the White House when Trump left office in January 2021.
“I think they should absolutely release the affidavit for the search warrant,” Fishwick said. “We need to know the specifics of this case. You can’t just suddenly indict a former president without telling the public why.”
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A judge ordered the DOJ to release the affidavit behind the search warrant last Friday. In response, the DOJ released a heavily redacted affidavit that gave questioning observers further questions to ponder with many of the justifications behind the search warrant redacted along with reported witness information, among other things.
Republicans have called the raid an “abuse of power” by the Biden administration.
“The country deserves a thorough and immediate explanation of what led to the events of Monday,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement. “Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice should already have provided answers to the American people and must do so immediately.”
“If Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray do not make public statements today explaining to the American people exactly what they did at Mar-a-Lago and why, they will have lost what little public trust they may have had and no longer deserve to remain in office,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said in a statement.
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