Editorial: Youngkin, Kiggans were reckless to join GOP outrage over Mar-a-Lago search before facts emerge

It’s reckless to speculate about the legal justification behind the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Monday execution of a search warrant at the Florida home of former President Donald Trump without seeing the warrant itself.

Not that it’s stopped some prominent Virginia Republicans from plunging head-first into those murky, brackish waters.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined the chorus of Republicans who are steaming mad that a Trump-appointed FBI director would allow his agents to execute a search warrant based on extensive investigation, probable cause and the authorization of a federal judge (which is the way all search warrants work.)

Youngkin tweeted that execution of the warrant was, “A stunning move by the DOJ and FBI” and that “Selective, politically motivated actions have no place in our democracy.” He also falsely claimed that the Department of Justice “labeled parents in Loudoun County as terrorists” when the DOJ did no such thing.

Nevermind that Virginia is home to a great many FBI and DOJ employees, and nevermind that Virginia is in the running to land a new FBI headquarters building. The governor couldn’t wait to pass judgment on their work and disparage their integrity, even without all the facts.

Virginia Sen. Jen Kiggans, who similarly aspires to higher office, also joined those ranks. On Tuesday, she Kiggans tweeted that “Democrats … weaponiz[ed] the FBI … to settle old political scores and silence their political opponents — it’s corrupt and it’s flat out unacceptable.”

In going off half-cocked, Youngkin and Kiggans have some distasteful company.

That includes House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who lashed out at Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday to “preserve your documents and clear your calendar.” (Memo to the would-be House speaker: The attorney general routinely appears before Congress as a matter of oversight and obligation, even without threatening him.)

And it includes Rep, Marjorie Taylor Greene, representing the party’s Q-Anon wing, who tweeted “DEFUND THE FBI!” and followed it with an upside-down American flag, a rare one-two punch that undermines her position as a champion of law enforcement and a supporter of the military.

That’s the team Kiggans aspires to join. After announcing her bid for Congress, she apparently decided that the path to victory is the selling of her soul. How else can she defend voting to spend $70 million in taxpayer funds on a ridiculous “forensic audit” of Virginia’s 2020 election, a baseless scheme advanced by high-profile wackadoodle state Sen. Amanda Chase?

Kiggans was one of only four state senators to vote for the measure, meaning that even those who have made their public careers advancing all sorts of wild, extremist legislation considered that too radioactive to support.

Worth noting is that Garland has, thus far in the Biden administration, taken great pains to avoid even the appearance of impropriety or political opportunism for fear his actions might appear partisan. It frustrated Trump’s most rabid critics that the DOJ was proceeding with such extreme caution, though this extraordinary situation demanded precisely such a level of care.

Now, to hear Youngkin, Kiggans and their fellow Republicans tell it, Garland has become a raging partisan seemingly overnight, turning loose his jack-booted thugs to ransack the former president’s gilded Florida estate in an affront to Truth, Justice and the American Way.

More information from the Trump-appointed FBI director and official DOJ channels would be helpful, but those agencies rarely offer insight to ongoing investigations. The former president will also have a copy of the warrant, which he could make public at any time if he chooses. It’s hard to believe this search would have happened without every I being dotted and every T being crossed. But, again, it’s reckless to speculate about this law enforcement action without all the facts.

If “the better part of valor is discretion,” as Shakespeare wrote, and patience is a virtue, it’s pretty clear when Youngkin, Kiggans and their fellow Republicans stand.