Complaint filed to remove judge behind FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago

by Samantha Flom

Photo: Alamy

Tea Party Patriots Action has filed a federal complaint against the judge who authorized the FBI raid on President Donald J. Trump’s home.

Judge [Bruce] Reinhart should be disciplined and removed as a federal magistrate because of his failure to meet the standards of ethical conduct and character necessary for the public to have confidence in the nonpartisan role of a judge in a matter of this extreme public interest,” asserted Jennifer Martin, CEO of Tea Party Patriots Action, in the Aug. 16 filing.

One justification Martin provides for Reinhart’s removal is a statement the judge made on his personal Facebook page following the 2016 presidential election.

“Thank you, Robert Reich, for saying what many of us feel,” the judge wrote. “‘John Lewis is the conscience of America. Donald Trump doesn’t have the moral stature to kiss John Lewis’s feet.’”

Noting that Reinhart recently recused himself from a separate case involving Trump due to a “conflict of interest,” Martin also pointed out that the judge has been accused of unethical conduct in the past.

“Judge Reinhart has a history of ethical issues,” she said, “the most noteworthy being his resignation from the US Attorney’s office in Miami on January 1, 2008, and the very next day representing as counsel for employees of the late Jeffrey Epstein, who was under investigation by that same prosecutor’s office at the time of Reinhart’s employment and departure.”

Adding that Reinhart should have recused himself when first approached by the FBI, Martin continued: “The entire episode of the unprecedented search of the former President’s home, authorized by a political appointee of President Trump’s successor, and approved by a federal magistrate who has been outspoken in his opposition to and loathing of President Trump threatens the principle of ‘equal justice under law’ and the confidence of the American people in an unbiased judiciary.”

Since the Aug. 8 raid, controversy over the incident has plagued the FBI, with a recent Rasmussen Reports poll finding that 44 percent of likely U.S. voters credit the incident with a drop in their trust in the agency.

The poll further found that 53 percent of voters – up 7 percent from December – now agree with Roger Stone’s statement that there is “a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI … as Joe Biden‘s personal Gestapo.”

On Monday, Trump’s legal team filed a motion to have a Special Master appointed to review the documents confiscated from his home to “preserve the sanctity of executive communications and other privileged materials” and prevent the government from viewing them.

The 45th president issued a statement on the matter Monday, saying, “The wrongful, overbroad warrant was signed by a Magistrate Judge who recused himself just two months ago, from a MAJOR civil suit that I filed, because of his bias and animus toward me.” 

Describing the raid as “illegal and unconstitutional,” Trump noted that he and his team were doing everything in their power to get the documents back, adding: “I will never stop fighting for the American people, our Country, and the Rule of Law. Make America Great Again!”

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