
<p style="text-align: justify;">The language wasn’t boilerplate, or at least, it wasn’t <em>just</em> boilerplate. The Operations Order also required attaching a medic to the search team, and even included a map and instructions to the nearest trauma center, presumably for people who got shot during the raid. The small army of FBI agents — 37 of them — was armed, and was also ordered to conceal their weapons and dress undercover, increasing the palpable risks of confusion and an ‘unfortunate accident.’</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Grassroots reactions to yesterday’s disclosure were (and still are) <em>incandescent</em>. Julie Kelley demanded, “What country is this?” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), angrily tweeted “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.” Social media influencer Tim Pool opined in outrage, “This was either an attempt to kill Trump or incite civil war, maybe both.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The media machine responded promptly, coolly arguing that the FBI was only following “standard procedure:”</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">I’m not an expert on FBI criminal procedure. But completely coincidentally, I once sued a city for excessive force over a militarized SWAT raid against my high-end commercial real-estate brokerage client. Not only were my clients completely innocent — they were never even charged — but the raid was just a document search, like the Mar-a-Lago raid, that could easily have been handled using an investigatory subpoena.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Here’s my hot take: The FBI’s “standard procedure” argument stinks. There was nothing normal about the Mar-a-Lago raid. It wasn’t like the FBI was raiding a Harlem crack house. The FBI was raiding a high-end luxury property <em>secured by the Secret Service</em> where the most recent former President lives with no intent to arrest <em>anybody</em>. The FBI knew that people with guns would be there — Secret Service agents — and yet proceeded with its “surprise” raid in undercover clothing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It is also difficult to credit the lethal “boilerplate” to simple negligence. The layers of required approvals ran all the way up to Grandma Garland herself. Under no circumstances should deadly force have been authorized. The Secret Service should have had prior notice. The agents should have been unarmed to exclude any possibility of an accident.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As I said, based on the limited amount we know, it stinks. The already historic raid on a former president by his campaign opponent just became even more historic and disgraceful.</p>