Some Happy Chicken News

While we wait to see if the Judge will unseal and publicly release the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago, I thought I’d share the happy news that I’ve named some of the chickens! Not the older group, we’re still debating the merits of all of the fabulous names you suggested, but the three younger ones, who are all under a week old and are the last of the eggs to hatch.

Mama Pepper is looking a little bit worn out at this point, and will get some well deserved R&R and a little spa day treatment as soon as these wee ones are a little bigger, but aren’t they adorable? I spent some time with them while reading the morning newspapers, and I suddenly knew exactly what their names should be: Sarah, Percy and Bill.

Owl Babies was a favorite book for all four of my kids when they were little. If you’ve got kids or grandkids, or just some kid you’re particularly fond of, do them a favor and grab this book for them. It’s very sweet. There was a time when our kids would even pretend to be baby owls. Not to ruin the storyline, but my baby chicks looked just like the baby owls in the book, waiting for their Mama to come back, when she popped out for a bite to eat. So, we have names!

And, I was fortunate enough to be joined by Pickles while I was out there. She’s very good company.

Just a reminder while we wait, the parts of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant DOJ has moved the court to unseal (once sealed in the court’s files, it takes a court order to release it, even if Trump consents) include the warrant itself, the attachments that show the place(s) to be searched (Attachment A) and the items to be searched for (Attachment B). They’ve also included the return of service, which will show in inventory of items seized. But in this case, that’s likely to be heavily redacted because of national security implications.

We won’t see, unless the court grants related motions by the NYT and others, the affidavit supporting the search warrant, i.e. setting out the probable cause that justified the search. That, of course, is the meat of the warrant and the part that would be most interesting. But there are good reasons to keep it sealed, especially if DOJ is pursuing a criminal case. It’s not clear to me that we’ll see the actual crimes DOJ is investigating. That’s typically stated on the application for the search warrant, but it’s possible we could get at least a hint of that when papers are released. If this search was just about reclaiming classified materials and the matter is over, there’s a greater rationale for releasing the affidavit, even if it has to be heavily redacted to protect classified information.

Of course, that’s one of the big questions here: whether DOJ executed the search simply to reclaim the missing documents or whether they are actively pursuing prosecution, and if so, who the targets are. Typically, cases of mishandling are only prosecuted based on extreme facts that suggest gross negligence or “sharing” documents with additional people. Here, with the facts still unclear, there’s not a lot of clarity (for instance, WaPo has reported DOJ was searching for documents related to nuclear weapons; if that’s true, we don’t know whether agents found any or not. If they did, and if there was any evidence they had been shared with others, the volume of this investigation gets ratcheted up very quickly).

That’s where we are now. I’ll be back when we know more.

We’re in this together,

Joyce