Jeez, man. It turns out that the Orange Menace from Mar-A-Lago actually did receive a subpoena for the missing records the FBI went hunting for this week. So the perfectly legal search of his Florida manse came only after they ignored the subpoena — and a Trump lawyer signed a paper saying they had turned everything over already.
Former President Donald J. Trump received a subpoena this spring in search of documents that federal investigators believed he had failed to turn over earlier in the year, when he returned boxes of material he had improperly taken with him upon moving out of the White House, three people familiar with the matter said.
The existence of the subpoena helps to flesh out the sequence of events that led to the search of Mr. Trump’s Florida home on Monday by F.B.I. agents seeking classified material they believed might still be there, even after efforts by the National Archives and the Justice Department to ensure that it had been returned.
The subpoena suggests that the Justice Department tried methods short of a search warrant to account for the material before taking the politically explosive step of sending F.B.I. agents unannounced to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s home and members-only club.
Two people briefed on the classified documents that investigators believe remained at Mar-a-Lago indicated that they were so sensitive in nature, and related to national security, that the Justice Department had to act.
Of course, the legal toadies in Trumpland are saying the existence of the subpoena proves they were cooperating and the search by the FBI was not needed.
Sure, sure.
I totally believe that they weren’t ignoring the subpoena and trying to run out the legal clock, just as Trump does every time he faces legal peril.