Editorial: For justice's sake, let ex-President Trump's Mar-a-Lago investigation proceed unhindered

Let the feds do their work.

No sooner did federal agents execute a judicially authorized search warrant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence then his defenders were all up in arms.

Fox News was all "what about Hunter Biden?" A Trump daughter-in-law proclaimed Hillary Clinton made off with paintings from the White House. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, all opposed to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection until he flew to Mar-a-Lago, treaded dangerously close to obstruction of justice himself Monday night, trying to intimidate U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland with threats of a Congressional investigation of the investigation. Florida's Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted the search as a "Banana Republic" tactic. We haven't heard any of them mention Benghazi yet but the day is young.

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None of these Republican critics has any idea what is going on behind the scenes in the investigation that led to the execution of the search warrant — nor should they — so none has the slightest justification in opposing it. All they offer is knee-jerk political reaction, to stir up the masses. By contrast Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, given an open mike on MSNBC by sympathetic host Rachel Maddow, as a matter of propriety flatly and repeatedly declined prompts to weigh in on the Mar-a-Lago warrant or even on McCarthy's reaction to it.

We don't know what the FBI investigation is about or what the search will yield. (By the way, Trump and his lawyers do because it was in the search warrant they were served with -- but curiously, they're not saying.)

We can presume that the agents weren't searching for purloined White House ash trays or coasters, or even ordinary archival documents. Trump had access to the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and if the Department of Justice executed an involuntary search, it means they demonstrated to a federal judge that either the ex-President failed to volunteer the materials, or that they had reason to believe he wouldn't.

And the judge agreed.

No one is above the law, even if you like his politics. Those who believe this constitutes anti-democratic overreach can attempt to back up that allegation in the course of time. But right now, there's an investigation underway and we need to let Justice do its job.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mar-a-Lago Trump investigation: Editorial says FBI should proceed