No justification for the raid has been provided by the FBI or the Department of Justice yet. To top it off, Judge Bruce Reinhart’s webpage has mysteriously disappeared from court site after FBI raid.
The website for the judge who sanctioned the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s residence was taken down by a federal court in Florida.
Archive copies of the page for U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart show that it was deleted on August 10.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida’s computer operations manager informed The Epoch Times that there is currently “no information at this time.”
Reinhart’s biography, email, directions to the courthouse where he serves, his chambers contact information, his deputy’s contact details, and the names of the deputy and judge’s law clerks were all listed on the page.
The court’s other magistrate judges’ pages are still accessible online.
Signed Off on Raid
Reinhart, who was chosen for the post by other judges, has acknowledged that he was the jurist who gave the go-ahead for the FBI to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
According to one of Trump’s lawyers who spoke to The Epoch Times, about two dozen officers stormed the resort on August 8.
The search warrant that investigators provided to Trump representatives mentioned Reinhart’s name as the authorizing judge, according to Christina Bobb, the lawyer.
The warrant and any accompanying documents, such as an affidavit describing the FBI’s justification for the request for a warrant, are kept under seal. However, Reinhart replied to demands to unseal the documents, which show that the warrant used to raid Trump’s resort, by instructing the Department of Justice to respond to them, thereby implying that he had authorized the warrant.
The government may record its response to the petitions to unseal, made by the nonprofit Judicial Watch and the Albany Times Union, under seal “to avoid disclosing matters already under seal,” Reinhart stated in a brief decision.
The response must be submitted by August 15 at 5 p.m.
It hasn’t been filed yet.
No justification for the raid has been provided by the FBI or the Department of Justice. According to Trump’s attorneys, investigators were searching for presidential and classified documents. The head of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), was informed earlier this year by U.S. archivist David Ferriero that boxes of documents that were moved from Trump’s property to the National Archives in January contained classified information.
Judge’s History
From 1988 until 1996, Reinhart served as a trial lawyer for the Department of Justice before becoming a West Palm Beach-based assistant U.S. attorney. He was involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s case, which resulted in Epstein avoiding federal prosecution in exchange for entering a guilty plea to a single state count of soliciting a minor.
Reinhart left the government shortly after the plea agreement was made and worked in private practice for eleven years.
According to court records, he also defended pilots and Epstein’s housekeeper.
On March 14, 2018, Reinhart was appointed a magistrate judge.
Carolyn Bell, Reinhart’s wife, is a judge as well. In 2018, Republican Rick Scott, who was then governor, chose her for a position on a state circuit court.
Reinhart posted the news on Facebook.
Within the same page, Reinhart blasted then-President-elect Trump, objecting to Trump’s criticism of the since-deceased Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
“I generally ignore the President-elect’s tweets, but not this one,” Reinhart wrote, adding later that he agreed with the statement, “Donald Trump doesn’t have the moral stature to kiss John Lewis’s feet.”