The federal judge who authorized the raid on former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago has a shady past that invites the question of whether he used the FBI to attack a political enemy.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart represented former employees of deceased sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. More suspiciously, Reinhart donated to the presidential campaign of Barack Hussein Obama, and to Trump’s GOP rivals during the 2016 GOP primary races.
The timing of the sensational raid suggests federal law enforcement has become a secret police force of the Democratic Party, which might use the raid and an ensuing bogus criminal prosecution — along with the bogus January 6 “insurrection” committee — to stop Trump from running for president in 2024.
Switched Sides
“Reinhart was elevated to magistrate judge in March 2018 after 10 years in private practice. That November, the Miami Herald reported that he had represented several of Epstein’s employees — including, by Reinhart’s own admission to the outlet, Epstein’s pilots; his scheduler, Sarah Kellen; and Nadia Marcinkova, who Epstein once reportedly described as his ‘Yugoslavian sex slave,’” the New York Post reported.
The Herald explained it this way:
On Oct 23, 2007, as federal prosecutors in South Florida were in the midst of tense negotiations to finalize a plea deal with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a senior prosecutor in their office was quietly laying out plans to leave the U.S. attorney’s office after 11 years. On that date, as emails were flying between Epstein’s lawyers and federal prosecutors, Bruce E. Reinhart, now a federal magistrate, opened a limited liability company in Florida that established what would become his new criminal defense practice.
Reinhart quit his job with the South Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office on New Year’s Day in 2008, then began defending Kellen and Marcinkova the next day. The pair received immunity in the deal with federal prosecutors that permitted Epstein to plead guilty to state but not federal charges.
Continued the Herald in another story:
In 2011, Reinhart was named in the Crime Victims’ Rights Act lawsuit, which accused him of violating Justice Department policies by switching sides, implying that he leveraged inside information about Epstein’s investigation to curry favor with Epstein. Reinhart, in a sworn declaration attached to the CVRA case, denied the allegation, saying he did not participate in Epstein’s criminal case and “never learned any confidential, non-public information about the Epstein matter.’’
Obama Donor
But going over to the dark side to represent Epstein’s torpedoes isn’t the only problem with Reinhart. As The National Pulse reported, his political donations need scrutiny:
Reinhart donated twice to Obama’s campaign in 2008 totaling $2,000. Reinhart, who was appointed U.S. magistrate in March 2018, also donated to the campaign of Trump rival Jeb Bush in 2015.
Celebrity law professor Jonathan Turley observed that the FBI raided Trump’s home to find presidential documents supposedly taken in contravention of federal law, noting that former Clinton torpedo Sandy Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for the same thing.
Yet whether the FBI found anything is unclear. Although officials from the National Archives found 15 boxes of files there in February, “Trump’s reported behavior is well short of Berger’s.” When agents broke into Trump’s safe, it was empty:
The question is, what documents were found and was there prior knowledge that they were illegally withheld? Archives officials searched Mar-a-Lago in February and recovered 15 boxes of material; it is unclear whether they identified and notified Trump of other missing documents believed to remain on his property.
Even then, the law requires prosecutors to show intent to steal documents. If federal prosecutors can’t file a criminal case against Trump, Turley continued, the obvious question will be why they resorted to such a dramatic raid.
“The Biden administration has engaged repeatedly in heavy-handed FBI raids without any clear necessity, including searches or arrests targeting Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, Peter Navarro and other Trump associates; each played out on television, despite the obvious alternatives of voluntary surrenders,” he wrote:
It remains unclear whether some of these raids even uncovered criminal evidence or will result in criminal charges.
There is a documented history of bias against Trump by top FBI officials, including prior falsification or misrepresentations used to facilitate the Russia conspiracy investigation. Thus, Attorney General Merrick Garland surely knew this raid would rekindle suspicions that this could be another example of what fired FBI official Peter Strzok once called an “insurance policy” against Trump becoming president in 2016 — only this time in 2024. For that reason, the Justice Department has an added burden to show this raid was a step toward actual criminal prosecution and not just a political indemnification.
