Tuesday 9 August 2022 12:49 PM Mar-a-Lago raid 'shows Trump probably target of a criminal investigation' trends now
Donald Trump is probably the target of a criminal investigation and the raid on his Mar-a-Lago mansion shows it, a former acting US Solicitor General has said.
Neal Katyal, who was appointed by Barack Obama to represent the government in front of the Supreme Court between 2010 and 2011, told MSNBC on Monday night that if he were Trump's lawyer, he would be telling him to 'prepare for jail time'.
It comes after FBI agents earlier searched Trump's Florida mansion - including his private safe - with journalists briefed that they were looking for protected documents Trump is accused of illegally taking after his presidential term ended.
Trump blasted the raid as a 'dark day' for America while lawyer Alan Dershowitz - a long-time associate of Trump via the Mar-a-Lago club and who represented him during his first impeachment - called the raid 'totally unjustified' and 'wrong'.
Neal Katyal, the former acting Solicitor General, has said the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago shows Trump is probably the subject of a criminal investigation
The Justice Department is known to be conducting a criminal investigation into the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but has repeatedly refused to say whether it is looking into Trump
The FBI and Justice Department have refused to say anything about the raid - including why it was carried out, what agents were looking for, or whether they found anything.
It comes amid a Justice Department probe into the January 6 attack on the Capitol, with prosecutors said to be questioning witnesses specifically about Trump's actions in the led-up to that day.
Katyal, who describes himself as an 'extremist centrist' and is a law professor at Georgetown University, told MSNBC: 'I think [the raid] makes it likely that the former president is the target of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.'
Laying out the legal groundwork that the FBI would have needed to satisfy to get a warrant for the search, he added: 'They have convinced a federal judge that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.
'[The judge is convinced] that there are documents in [his] house that are related to that crime, and that an ordinary request like a subpoena or something like that isn't going to be enough.'
He concluded: 'If I were Donald Trump's lawyer right now, and thank God that I'm not, I would be advising my client to be telling my family that I am expecting jail time and should be planning accordingly.'
Separately, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told DailyMail.com that - if Trump is found guilty of mishandling the documents - he could be barred from holding public office even as he prepares to run in 2024.
He said Trump would likely be charged under US Code Title 18, Section 2071 which involves concealment or destruction of US government documents.
The code states that anyone who 'willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record' could be fined and sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison.'
The provision also states that anyone convicted of records concealment or destruction 'shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.'
FBI agents are said to have begun an hours-long search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday morning before Trump confirmed the raid later in the day (Secret Service agents at the
