A Washington Post report published Wednesday alleged a serious clash between federal prosecutors and FBI agents last summer in the Donald Trump classified documents probe.
The lead-up to the execution of the search warrant at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was especially tense, according to the Post:
Prosecutors argued that new evidence suggested Trump was knowingly concealing secret documents at his Palm Beach, Fla., home and urged the FBI to conduct a surprise raid at the property. But two senior FBI officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan as too combative and proposed instead to seek Trump’s permission to search his property, according to the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive investigation.
The report, which hasn't been confirmed by NBC News or MSNBC, portrayed a remarkable dynamic, with agents, rather than prosecutors, being gun shy. As former FBI agent Peter Strzok’s tweet Wednesday on the story indicated, that dynamic is the opposite of normal:
Naturally, as the Post reported, prosecutors “claimed vindication” when agents executed the search warrant in August and found a trove of classified material. They should feel vindicated. And knowing what we know at this point, timid agents should feel silly.
And though this reported FBI/prosecutor dynamic took hold before Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel overseeing the Mar-a-Lago and Jan. 6 probes, what we’ve seen from Smith suggests that he isn’t being gun shy either, no matter what resistance he may face inside or outside the government. He’s apparently following the evidence where it leads and fighting against desperate privilege claims.
So while any resistance to pursuing evidence or a case against the former president because he’s a former president is concerning – that would be inappropriately political — we don’t seem to need to worry about Smith suffering from that delusion.