The case has no precedent in the United States. On Monday, searches were carried out at the residence of former President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Ordered by the FBI, this research would aim to verify the nature (of the many) documents taken by the former tenant of the White House during his departure. As a reminder, a law on presidential documents obliges the outgoing president to hand over these official documents to the National Archives.
However, this hypothesis was mainly unveiled by the son of Donald Trump, Eric. But the FBI has not officially announced the nature of this search. It could also be related to the responsibility of the former president during the storming of the Capitol in January 2021 or could concern the cases of financial fraud which affect the Trump Organization.
But who really forced this search? According to the American news channel Fox News, the judge who signed the FBI warrant to carry out the searches at Donald Trump’s home is the lawyer who defended the former businessman accused of sexual assaults on minors, Jeffrey Epstein. But this information is partially false. 20 minutes explains why.
FAKE OFF
Who is this famous lawyer/judge who would be linked to both the Epstein case and the search of Trump’s home? The name of the investigating judge – Bruce Reinhart – was notably revealed by Donald Trump’s lawyer Christina Bobb. If he was a lawyer during the Epstein case, he is now a Florida magistrate and has been since 2018.
This Tuesday, Politico media returned to the CV of the one who authorized what Donald Trump described as “political persecution”. Our colleagues explain that in reality Bruce Reinhart did not individually defend Jeffrey Epstein at the time of the trial, but did represent employees of the deceased billionaire. According to a media survey Miami Herald published in 2018, the lawyer notably defended the one considered “his planner” Sarah Kellen, as well as the pilot Nadia Marcinkova. Both are accused of having attracted young girls to the businessman accused of sexual assault, for remuneration.
One man, several positions
However, the presence of Bruce Reinhart has already posed a problem in the Epstein case, because until 2008, the latter held the position of federal prosecutor, before becoming a defense lawyer. In his investigation, the Miami Herald revealed that in 2011, the lawyer was accused of violating Justice Department policies by representing Esptein employees, when he could have had confidential information as a former prosecutor. But at the time, the latter denied the facts and declared not to have participated in the criminal case of the former billionaire as a prosecutor.
After the search at Donald Trump’s house, no warrant was made public and the FBI remains silent on the objectives of this warrant. However, experts assure AFP that such a search had to have the approval of Justice Minister Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and therefore could not be the decision of a single man.