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The judge most likely to have signed off on the Monday night raid of President Donald J. Trump’s home is reported to be Judge Bruce Reinhart, a former attorney who represented employees of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, per The National Pulse.
The judge’s identity was initially reported Tuesday by Politico, which cited the Miami Herald’s reporting that the warrant for the raid was authorized by “a federal magistrate judge in West Palm Beach.”
Per Politico, the Southern District of Florida has three magistrates, but according to the court’s online database, only one of them, Reinhart, had been assigned two recent warrant applications. Both of them were submitted on Monday.
According to The National Pulse, Reinhart was an assistant U.S. attorney closely involved in Epstein’s case, but he left that role on Jan. 1, 2008. The next day, he began representing Epstein’s employees and was later accused of using his position with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to gain Epstein’s favor.
Further, the judge was a two-time donor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and donated to President Trump’s 2016 presidential primary opponent, Jeb Bush, as well.
Trump sent shockwaves around the country Monday night when he revealed that his Palm Beach, Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, was “under siege, occupied, and raided” by a large contingent of FBI agents.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” the president noted in a statement shared through his Save America PAC. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.”
News of what appeared to many to be a politically motivated attack on the 45th president spread quickly, sparking a spontaneous rally outside of Trump’s Florida home, with supporters waving flags and playing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” in a show of solidarity for the president.
Reactions also poured in via social media, with conservatives voicing their concerns and outrage.
Weighing in via Twitter, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., tweeted: “The raid on former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago is unconscionable. Today’s unprecedented invasion of former President Trump’s private residence is an assault on our Constitutional Republic and reeks of political retribution.”
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake echoed those sentiments with a solemn message of her own.
“Our Government, originally created of the people, by the people and for the people has now turned Against We the People,” she warned. “No one is safe. I am praying not only for President Trump, but for the entire Nation.”
