You know how, in thriller movies, sometimes the bad guys — and sometimes the good guys — end up having to hold up some poor sap’s hand or face to a scanner in order to gain access to a biometrically locked door or suitcase or nuclear device? Well for Elliott Broidy, who was deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee under Trump until less than a year ago, he was offered the opportunity to live out a movie scene in real life.
Unfortunately for Broidy, he played the role of “poor sap.”
That’s from a report compiled by transparency group ProPublica, who obtained a related, sealed search warrant from last summer detailing a raid that took place on Broidy’s office in which federal authorities sought records “related to his dealings with foreign officials and Trump administration associates.”
That does not sound promising for the Trump defense. In fact, last August’s report from the Washington Post on the investigation of Broidy sent White House administration officials into a tailspin, attempting to distance the President from Broidy in any way possible, à la “coffee boy” type statements.
But the fact is, every President is the leader of their party — in fact, they’re technically the leader of their party from the time they accept the nomination to run for President until the time the next candidate accepts the same honor.
Long before Broidy paid off his own Playboy model just like the boss did, he was the actual chair — as in, the number one guy — on the RNC’s finance committee back when John McCain was the candidate. With that kind of experience, it was small wonder that Trump used the megadonor as a major “bundler” and fundraiser for his own campaign, then made sure he was appointed back to the RNC after the election.
From the ProPublica report:
The search warrant cites three potential crimes that authorities are investigating: conspiracy, money laundering and violations of the law barring covert lobbying on behalf of foreign officials. To obtain a search warrant, authorities have to convince a judge that there’s a probable cause they will find evidence of those specific crimes.”
So just as you found out from the controversy surrounding the FISA warrant obtained by the FBI to conduct the surveillance of Carter Page that led to the investigation of Donald Trump in the first place, the fact is that the feds have to show a judge basic proof that they’re mostly already there with proof and legal conclusions and just need the authority to seize related documents, records, and files.
No probable cause, no warrant.
None of this bodes well for the ongoing Trump mantra of having done absolutely nothing wrong himself and having had zero contact with anyone who did do anything wrong — but then, that was the silliest defense his team could ever have come up with in the first place.
Featured image via screen capture
