When the Mar-a-Lago raid unfolded in August 2022, it sent ripples of skepticism through the public sphere. The sight of over 30 armed agents descending upon a former president’s residence over a dispute concerning classified documents seemed excessive and raised questions about the motivations behind the operation.
In December 2025, reports surfaced revealing that many FBI agents harbored doubts about the existence of probable cause for such a dramatic action. These concerns were reportedly communicated to former Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice, yet the operation proceeded regardless, casting a shadow over the decision-making process.
Recently, Just the News unveiled that a high-ranking official within the Justice Department, known to be a “key ally” of Merrick Garland, also questioned the legality of the raid. This revelation underscores a broader unease within the department about the ethical and legal grounds of the operation, suggesting that the Biden administration’s aggressive stance might have overlooked these critical issues.
The emergence of a DOJ memo, now under scrutiny as part of an investigation into the alleged politicization of law enforcement by the Biden administration, adds another layer to the controversy. It appears that the official, identified as Stemler, went beyond expressing concerns, implying the raid could be considered an illegal search.
MORE: Bombshell Emails Reveal FBI Agents Did Not Believe They Had Probable Cause to Raid Mar-a-Lago
Stemler sent the email to Sophia Brill, a future Biden White House lawyer and then an attorney inside DOJ’s National Security Division, which played a central role in this anti-Trump inquiry.
The memo was recently unearthed by the DOJ as they investigate the weaponization of law enforcement under the Biden regime, according to the report. It seems like Stemler had more than just “concerns” — to me, it reads like she’s flat-out calling it an illegal search:
“I didn’t know about this search in advance, but I have been worrying about it ever since and worrying more now,” Stemler wrote to Brill on Aug. 10, 2022. “Doesn’t Trump maintain that he had the authority to declassify documents while he was still President?
“Has anyone in NSD or OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] looked at that? I know we have procedures for declassifying, but is the President as Commander in Chief bound by those procedures? We also have procedures for granting pardons, but the President doesn’t have to follow them,” she added.
MORE: Bombshell Emails Reveal FBI Agents Did Not Believe They Had Probable Cause to Raid Mar-a-Lago
Have We Forgotten… So Quickly? (VIP)
Remember this?
Trump claimed that he had a standing order from his first term as president that declassified all documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Stemler worried whether releasing details about the FBI’s seizures would be “ethical”:
“I don’t know if we intend to charge anyone with respect to the classified documents seized yesterday, but if we disclose that we found X classified documents before we seek an indictment, will that trench on any fair trial rights or violate the ethical obligations of a prosecutor?” she wrote.
She continued:
I seem to recall that a prosecutor has some leeway to inform the public that we have arrested the serial killer and seized from his home evidence that ties him to the murders for the purpose of reassuring the public that they are now safe. But aren’t there ethical limits on what a prosecutor can say otherwise?
The Mar-a-Lago raid is a stain on our country’s history and shows just how low Garland, Biden, and Co. were willing to go to “get” Orange Man Bad. Like the concerns expressed by FBI agents that there was no probable cause for the invasion, this email reveals that even those on the inside of the lawfare regime were uncomfortable with much of what was going on.
And that would likely be because they knew it was unethical.
Editor’s Note: The endless lawfare against Donald Trump was emblematic of the banana republic Biden regime.
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