The FBI raided former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence as opposed to issuing a subpoena, because they wanted to circumvent Trump's Fifth Amendment rights – and seize anything they wanted – according to legal expert Alan Dershowitz on Newsmax.
"I think I've figure it out; I think I know why they gave a search warrant rather than a subpoena," Dershowitz told Tuesday's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren."
"Had they just subpoenaed any classified material, Trump could have claimed the Fifth Amendment, not as to the content of the material but the act of production – act of production, Fifth Amendment privilege.
"The government would have had to give him production immunity, but if they went in and did a search, then there's no Fifth Amendment because they just took the material. The material itself is not covered by the Fifth Amendment. It's only the act of production. Since he's 1,000 miles away he had nothing to do with the production.
"So that's the excuse that they're going to give. They were circumventing the Fifth Amendment rights of Donald Trump."
Dershowitz, who has called a raid a last-resort option for the FBI, added to Van Susteren a search warrant is easily obtained through a judge, who signs off on them without much justification.
"For a search warrant, you go to Santa Claus and you say, 'Santa, it's Christmas, give me presents,'" Dershowitz said. "Every judge grants almost every search warrant request, and there is no judicial oversight to speak of for search warrants."
Dershowitz's remarks appear to stamp out allegations from the likes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who suggested the FBI must have had "justification" to raid Trump's private residence. Dershowitz argued a search warrant has a very low bar.
"I've been doing this for 60 years, Greta: I don't remember a case where a judge turned down a search warrant," Dershowitz continued. "There must have been some, but not in my experience.
"And, if a judge turns down a search warrant, you just go to another judge and another judge and another judge. You can get to the eighth judge, if seven have been denied, you still get your search warrant."
Dershowitz doubled back to the Justice Department's reasoning for raiding Trump instead of issuing a subpoena.
"Search warrants are much more permissive than subpoenas," he continued. "Subpoena, you have to argue for something specific. Whereas, in a search warrant, anything in plain view – we know how FBI agents and police officers understand plain view: They'll search through a drawer and see a document; they'll say that's in plain view and they'll seize it."
Ultimately, the FBI opened up the potential to use this raid to dig up further dirt on Trump for other potential case pursuits.
"They can use a search warrant designed to get only about classified information to get information about Jan. 6 as well," Dershowitz warned.
"I don't think they were looking for anything but trying to get Donald Trump."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.