MUELLER’S 2017 RAID ON MANAFORT’S HOME WAS A CRIMINAL ACT
by Jack Watts
Let me begin by saying that I am not a fan of Paul Manafort’s. At the core of his character, he is sleazy and unethical. That being said, the Mueller probe into Manafort’s private life was predicated on a criminal act by our government.
On July 26, 2017, the FBI conducted a pre-dawn raid on Paul Manafort’s home in Alexandria, VA. They seized documents, computers, and every other thing they could think of to investigate Manafort’s life before he was involved in the Trump campaign. Such raids are a common practice for the FBI. Since it was ordered by Mueller, using his Special Counsel authority, there wasn’t anything wrong with this, or was there?
There was definitely something wrong with it. It was a violation of Manafort’s civil rights. Let me explain why.
The scope of Mueller’s investigation did not include authority to inquire into Manafort’s pre-Trump business dealings. When the Mueller team realized this, they went to Assistant Attorney General Rob Rosenstein and asked for authority to investigate Manafort’s past business dealings. Upon hearing this, Rosenstein did the paperwork to have the raid authorized. The problem is the authorization came a week after the raid—not a week before it.
Thus, the raid was illegal, but neither the DOJ, the FBI, or Team Mueller are willing to own up to this. Just as the Bill of Rights forbids an Ex-Post Facto Law, a warrant cannot be retroactive either. Where Manafort is concerned, because he is such an icky person, apparently the Rule of Law does not apply, but if it doesn’t apply to him, justice is nullified.
Y’all, this abuse of power by our secret police cannot be allowed to stand. One of the major reasons we elected Trump was to reinstate the Rule of Law in America, but this is a clear abuse of power that is no different than anything either Eric Holder or Loretta Lynch would do. It stinks to high heaven, but there is no public outcry to demand that Rosenstein and Mueller resign over it.
Why is that? The Left is too invested in finding anything they can to take down Trump, and the Right is not willing to admit there can be any wrongdoing by the Trump administration. Both sides want to win, but in this case, because the Rule of Law has been discarded, everybody loses.
There is no right way to do a wrong thing. Manafort, as unsavory as he is, deserves Constitutional protection, and it is up to us, the people, to insist that he receives it. This issue is foundational to our democratic system.