Editors’ Blog

Now we know what the FBI was after. Here’s the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.

We are, we might say, deep in the thick of it. Until recently we heard constantly how there was no accountability for the ex-President, no investigations or prosecutions, of anything tied to the denouement of the Trump presidency, save for the men who actually entered the Capitol complex on January 6th. Now we learn that there are and have been multiple investigations touching on various incidents tied to the end of the Trump presidency. There was a bunch of frothy and nonsensical chatter earlier in the week about how the FBI had just given the presidency back to Donald Trump. This morning the House Freedom Caucus, ground zero of Trumpism and coup plotting, canceled the press conference they had planned to bewail the FBI search of the ex-President’s home. Facts change and you have to react to them.

It is probably best to say that we are back in one of those fugue windows Trump Republicans have, much like January 7th-9th 2021, in which there’s a period of relative silence while a story is devised to explain why something inexplicable and indefensible is in fact awesome and totally fine. They’ll get there.

The Washington Post has a breaking new development this evening that’s worth your attention:

Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Read the full piece here.

Based on a variety of reports over the past hour or so, it appears that the man who attacked the FBI field office in Cincinnati this morning went over the edge after the feds conducted their search of Mar-a-Lago. The caveat is that the man was reportedly present for the Jan. 6 attack in Washington, so it might not have taken much to push him over the edge. He was killed this afternoon by law enforcement after a standoff in a cornfield in rural Ohio. An account on Trump’s fake Twitter platform under the same name as the gunman was posting about the attack seemingly in real time today. Matt Shuham has our story.

There’s a lot going on in the world of Trump investigations this week, but I wanted to catch you up on some details surrounding additional FBI activity in Pennsylvania. At the center of it, it seems, is Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA).

Federal judge orders DOJ to confer with Trump lawyers and report to him by 3 p.m. tomorrow about how to proceed on releasing the warrant and related documents.

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss stunning developments in Kansas and the Senate, along with the FBI’s visit to Mar-a-Lago.

You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.

Two significant takeaways from Garland’s presser. Garland personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant and carry out the search. The DOJ is asking the court to unseal portions of the search warrant and the inventory of what was seized in the search.

We’re awaiting a statement from AG Merrick Garland currently scheduled for 2:30 p.m. eastern. Presumably this is about the incident in Cincinnati though officially there’s no word on the subject. But conceivably there will be some reference to the search at Mar-a-Lago if today’s incident appears tied to the Monday search.

Again, this is just speculation: there’s no word about what it’s about.

Late Update: CNN reports that this will be about the Mar-a-Lago search.

At 9 a.m. this morning an armed man entered the FBI field office in Cincinnati and tried to shoot his way past security. An exchange of gunfire of some sort ensued. The man retreated and then drove off. This led to a chase and finally a standoff with the armed man at which there were more exchanges of gunfire — apparently in a cornfield. That standoff apparently continues, after more exchanges of gunfire. Thus far there are no reports of injuries. There are unconfirmed repots that assailant was wearing body armor and had a nail gun in addition to an AR-15 style rifle.

From the Twitter account of the Cincinnati FBI field office …

At approximately 9 AM this morning an armed subject attempted to breach the Visitor Screening Facility at #FBI Cincinnati. After an alarm and a response by FBI special agents, the subject fled north onto Interstate 71.

Appears to be a fairly large lockdown in the surrounding area.

More details here from TPM team.

This post will be updated with new information.