Fox News Legal Analyst Tamps Down Hysteria: FBI Has ‘Every Right’ to Collect Classified Material From Trump

Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley offered some sober legal analysis on Fox News Monday morning regarding the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday. Turley noted that federal authorities have “every right” to collect classified material wrongly taken from the executive office of the president and that Trump “has no right to retain it” – rebuffing many of the hot takes and calls for political retribution featured earlier on the network.

Fox anchor Sandra Smith began the interview with Turley by asking what he thought President Joe Biden’s level of knowledge regarding the search might have been.

“Well, I would be surprised if the White House was given any type of formal notice. That would be highly inappropriate. It would be a violation of a host of policies at the Department of Justice,” Turley responded.

“But there are these mounting questions. You know, we’re learning more that there were ongoing negotiations, meetings at least in June, to turn over additional documents. And it once again raises the question of why you needed a raid. I mean, even if negotiations broke down, why wouldn’t a subpoena suffice?” Turley asked, adding:

This was a finite amount of material. It was located in the residence. The subject was not even in the residence. Why did you require this battalion of FBI agents to descend upon the former president’s home?

So, those are types of questions that will be raised. Now, this doesn’t mean that there was not a basis for the application for the raid. There is authority here.

“Obviously, if there’s classified material present at Mar-a-Lago, they have every right to collect it. And the former president has no right to retain it,” Turley concluded.

“But we still have to learn what was represented to the magistrate as the need for this raid. Did they suggest that they were afraid that there would be destruction of records or some other urgency that required this type of extreme action?” Turley questioned.

Turley’s interview followed directly after Fox News Chief Legal Correspondent Shannon Bream noted that the details of the warrant are likely known to Trump and his lawyers, which they could make public if they believed doing so was in their interest.

“So now we wait to see what the FBI does next. Will we get a press release? Will we get a look at that warrant, which, by the way, the basic warrant should have been left there at Mar-a-Lago,” Bream noted.

“So it exists out there for people to take a look at if the former president or his team thought it was relevant or newsworthy to turn over. They would probably be at liberty at this point to do that and have it in their possession,” she concluded.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com