NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert pressed one of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys Friday on releasing the FBI search warrant in connection to the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Vittert asked attorney Christina Bobb if the former president and his legal counsel will object to the release of the search warrant and seized evidence. Bobb responded they will not object and added they have not been able to make contact with the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the reporting of information.
“You guys have a copy of the warrant and you’re given a receipt at the end of an FBI search warrant,” Vittert said. “Why wouldn’t you just release that yourselves?”
“This is part of the discussion with the Department of Justice, we’re trying to do everything in accordance with the law and the way that—”
“There’s absolutely nothing preventing you guys from releasing it, though,” he said.
“Other than decorum, we’re trying to work well with the Department of Justice, we’ve been cooperative this entire time and we would like to remain cooperative and have reached out to them and are waiting to hear back,” she responded.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that the DOJ filed a motion to unseal the warrant. The former president expressed his support for the “immediate release” of the warrant and any documents relating to the raid in a Truth Social post Thursday. (RELATED: ‘Got Way Ahead Of Themselves’: Trump Tears Into Raid After Merrick Garland Speech)
Bobb said Trump’s counsel in Washington D.C. was subpoenaed for the release of any alleged classified materials stored in the former president’s home. She said a meeting at Mar-a-Lago took place in June to discuss whether the FBI would be permitted access to the storage facility and the documents.
The former president and his counsel told the FBI they could have access to his property and any documents they requested, she added.
The attorney then pushed back against Vittert’s claim that they did “not comply” with the subpoena, claiming they turned over all the materials requested. She argued they went to the “far extreme” of raiding the former president’s home, rather than reaching out to retrieve a requested document.
Bobb accused the FBI and DOJ of being “overreaching” and “corrupt” for their decision to raid Trump’s private residence, warning that the agencies likely are doing this to average Americans. Trump previously accused the agencies of “prosecutorial misconduct” and politically weaponizing the raid to prevent his re-election.
“The fact that it’s coming back on the FBI and the Department of Justice to show how corrupt and how overreaching they are, that I suppose could be a silver lining, but I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. And if anything, I think it highlights how extreme the FBI has become. If they’re doing this to Donald Trump, everybody says ‘oh, maybe they could do it to me.’ Now we can look back and say they probably were doing it to regular Americans. You don’t start at the top of the food chain, you work your way up.”
The host then questioned her on the potential release of closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the incident following allegations of the agents’ misconduct. Bobb said the matter has not been discussed, but added that the footage could be problematic because it shows the interior of the former president’s private residence.
