Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart had full authority to sign off on the search warrant for former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and didn’t need to kick this up to a supervising federal district judge despite its unprecedented nature, according to legal experts.
Never before had a search warrant been issued against a former president’s home until Monday, when more than 30 FBI agents stormed Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. According to reports, they were looking for confidential documents Mr. Trump reportedly took from the White House.
“It didn’t strike me as unusual. It would be a magistrate judge,” Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow and constitutional expert at the Manhattan Institute, said of the search warrant’s approval.