by Ben Whedon
Alina Habba says defense team also considering taking court action over leaks.
Former President Donald Trump's attorney said Tuesday that the former president will likely challenge the legality of the FBI's search of his home based on the Fourth Amendment.
AlinaHabba spoke on "The Sean Hannity Show" alongside Just the News Editor-in-Chief John Solomon.
Host Sean Hannity asked Habba about the former president's legal path forward in the ongoing case surrounding his possession of government documents at his Florida estate.
"In terms of what we do in the future, you know, there's this Fourth Amendment like you brought up, there's a fourth amendment issue here; the warrant was way too broad," she said, before pointing to the judge in the case as a pivotal factor.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will preside over the case in place of Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the FBI's search warrant. Trump appointed Cannon to the bench in 2020 and she has already signaled she will likely grant his request to appoint a "special master" to review the documents the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago.
"We do have judge Cannon, who's the federal judge that's taken up this case," Habba continued. "There's a hearing on Thursday; I think that that will be giving us some judicial oversight that is much needed at this point."
"So at this point, I think the best thing we've done is we've gotten a judge in place... who does look like they're going to be active," she went on. "There's a hearing on Thursday. Let's see how that goes. And I think shortly thereafter, we do need to move forward with filing to invalidate... the warrants due to Fourth Amendment issues."
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized," it reads.
Solomon concurred with Habba's assessment of the warrant as being overly broad, telling Hannity that "the same problems that we saw with the FISA warrant are evident in this search warrant."
"[A]s Alina just noted, this is a very broadly worded search warrant," he continued. "The manual says we're supposed to be narrow and targeted."
Solomon then pointed to revelations that the FBI's search warrant application relied extensively on news articles. One was a CBS Miami article about moving trucks at Mar-a-Lago while the other was a Breitbart News article in which former Trump adviser Kash Patel discussed the classified status of documents at the estate.
"We saw how badly that ended for the Russia collusion case, when they were using articles leaked by Christopher Steele to validate Christopher Steele's dossier," Solomon said. "You've got two news articles that are visible in this thing. The same tactics that the FBI was using in Russia collusion appear to still be alive and well in the FBI."
Solomon then pointed to apparent leaks in the news media that could have only come from leaked grand jury information.
"There seems to be leaks in the news media that could only have come from... the Grand Jury subpoenas that were delivered in June," he said. "If those are leaks of grand jury, does President Trump's lawyers go to the chief judge in the District of Columbia where that grand jury is currently impaneled and say, 'Hey, these are leaks. Let's find out what's going on here. This could only have come from the returns of what the President gave in cooperating with the subpoena.'?"
He then asked Habba if the president's legal team might pursue that legal approach.
"Well, to answer your question, I can tell you that we've actually been monitoring both the FBI leaks and all of those leaks," she replied. "You know, this is something that they expose themselves to. Unfortunately, they came out with that bogus, as you recall, the first week he came out there was he had the code to ... nuclear weapons."
"And then they bring out the affidavit. And there's no mention of that," she continued. "That should have been a headline. It was a leak to cover themselves up. So absolutely."
"But we don't have all the information yet. We still don't even have a completely unredacted affidavit; they won't share it with the legal team, let alone the public seems to know more than we do [sic]," Habba lamented. "So it's a problem. And I think that the FBI is gonna have major problems."
She ultimately told Solomon that his proposed approach had potential merit, saying "I think you're right on point. I think that's going to be a cause of action that he has and I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't pursue it."
Ben Whedon
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/trump-attorney-suggests-former-president-will-challenge-fbi-search-legality
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