LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Following yesterday’s FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, a former FBI agent and professor at Cooley Law School is giving a perspective of what goes into a search like this.
For more than 23 years, Andrew Arena has been in search warrants on mayors and United States Congressmen, but never a former president.
“I don’t think that we’ve seen anything like this in the history of our country,” Arena said.
In order to execute a search, Arena said agents or officers have to go through a neutral authority and show why there’s a reason to look.
“So, they have to describe what the evidence is, what the crime is, and why they believe it’s at that certain location,” he said.
According to Arena, when looking at a target or a location, more and more people may get involved in authorizing something like this. And when they do, it could go straight to the top.
“This is certainly new ground we’re walking on here. You talk about the pinnacle of sensitivity, a president, a former president, that takes the medal,” he said. “I wouldn’t be shocked if the attorney general and the director of the FBI did not personally sign off on this.”
We don’t know specific motives yet, but he said a lot of people could lose trust in the FBI if we don’t find out. And like other Americans, he wants to know details.
“The Department of Justice has a lot of explaining to do as to why they did it, when they did it, how they did it. Not saying they were wrong, but like most Americans, I want to see what the reasoning behind this was,” Arena said.