Thread by @openargs

🧵TRUMP DOCUMENTS CASE - A THREAD

Today, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhardt unsealed a bunch of pleadings and orders in connection with the Mar-a-Lago search warrant docket.

Let's dive in, shall we? /1

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Media have been reporting the big news is that Special Counsel Jack Smith secured 7 additional search warrants in connection with Trump’s willful retention of national security information. However… /2

…we actually should have noticed that two weeks ago (7/14), when this order was unsealed, showing 8 case captions. The first (8332) is the Mar-a-Lago docket we all know & love. The other 7 are the newly-revealed search warrants. /3

Don’t get too excited; the warrants and affidavits are still under seal. In fact, the only publicly available document on each of those 7 dockets is a motion by media intervenors to unseal the affidavits. (Those motions are pending.) What’s interesting, however… /4

…is the timing of those warrants. Docket 8489 was for a search warrant on October 28, 2022; dockets 8533-34 on Nov. 21 & dockets 8547-50 on Nov. 28.

All of these were filed while Trump’s complaint was pending before Judge Cannon; before she got slapped down by the 11th Cir. /5

Meaing Jack Smith was not just reacting to Judge Cannon trying to sabotage his potential prosecution but exploring additional avenues to uncover evidence of Trump’s criminal conduct. The fact that all of these were opened in S.D.Fl strongly suggests they’re all for Mar-a-Lago. /6

Now, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE WARRANTS WERE FOR, but there is one bit of information that makes me suspect they were for Mar-a-Lago employee phone & electronic record taps… /7

That’s this argument from the DOJ that completely unsealing the original search warrant affidavit “could be used to identify many, if not all of the witnesses” against Trump that were carefully omitted from the indictment. /8