Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that the Justice Department has filed a motion to rescind the search warrant and property receipt related to the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig described the announcement as a “remarkable and unusual move” because “we basically saw Merrick Garland calling Donald Trump a bluff.”
Following this search warrant, Trump and his attorneys had two documents, Honig explained on CNN following Garland’s remarks. “One is the search warrant itself with any attachments. And the second is this inventory or receipt.”
These documents contain important information about the search. Usually, it is Department of Justice policy to only talk about what is on file with the court. But with this move, Garland hopes to get these documents in front of Americans, Honig said.
Typically, the subpoena will list logistical information: the location to be searched, a general description of the items to be searched, the name of the judge, and the deadline by which the DOJ must perform the search.
But sometimes it also has an attachment, which will often list laws that the DOJ may have reason to believe have been violated.
The second document is an inventory slip or a receipt.
“It’s a list. The FBI said, ‘These are the items that were removed from Mar-a-Lago.” Again, the specificity and the generality tend to be different. I don’t expect that to be able to break to pieces of paper if they take up thousands of pages,” Honig explained. “I think what we’re going to see is lists like box number X. If they take any electrical documents any electronic device, if they take any laptops, cell phones, those things.”
However, Honig notes that we won’t see the affidavit, which is the most detailed, can be 20 to 100 pages long in which prosecutors give details that make it possible for them to believe the law. law has been violated.
That document will be kept confidential, and normally, it will be released if and when an accusation is made, Honig explained.
“If someone is searched and then prosecuted, they are given a copy of that affidavit … so that person can challenge it in court,” he said.
WATCH: CNN Elie Honig Breaks Down How Merrick Garland Just Called Donald Trump’s Scam
