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1 1 (August 23, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveioy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ______ Research Servi e The Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant: A Legal Introduction August 23, 2022 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida. A magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida later unsealed the warrant at the Department of Justice's request, which the former President did not oppose. The warrant authorized government officials to seize all documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of three federal statutes-18 U.S.C. @@ 793, 2071, and 1519. In addition to the warrant itself and its attachments, the court unsealed other material related to the search, including the cover sheet to the warrant application and an inventory of property seized. Proceedings are underway to unseal a redacted version of the affidavit supporting the warrant, and former President Trump filed a motion asking the court, among other things, to appoint a special master to oversee the government's handling of the seized material. This Sidebar describes the process for and implications of obtaining a search warrant. It then examines the criminal offenses identified in the Mar-a-Lago warrant. Finally, this Sidebar analyzes presidential authority to declassify documents and the role of declassification for the crimes at issue. Obtaining Search Warrants The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. When law enforcement conducts a search, the Supreme Court has said that the preferred process under the Fourth Amendment is to do so pursuant to a search warrant, although warrantless searches are reasonable in some circumstances. Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Fourth Amendment itself establish a number of requirements for obtaining a search warrant. Pursuant to the Fourth Amendment, a warrant must be based on probable cause, a standard the Supreme Court has described as incapable of precise definition or quantification into percentages. Exact formulations vary, but the Supreme Court has characterized the probable-cause standard as the kind of 'fair probability' on which 'reasonable and prudent' people act. Probable cause is a higher standard than reasonable suspicion but does not require proof that something is more likely true than false. To satisfy the probable-cause standard to obtain a search warrant, law enforcement must generally show a Congressional Research Service https://crsreports. congress.gov LSB10810 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress