The Florida judge who signed off on a search warrant authorizing the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort previously represented several of Jeffrey Epstein’s employees during a sex trafficking investigation.
Judge Bruce Reinhardt approved the warrant that allowed FBI agents to conduct their search of the former president’s south Florida estate, the New York Post reported.
Reinhart became a magistrate judge in March 2018 after 10 years in private practice. He left the South Florida US Attorney’s office on New Year’s Day in 2008 and began representing Epstein’s staff the next day.
His connection to the convicted pedophile were first reported by the Miami Herald that November. He confirmed to the paper that he had represented several of Epstein’s employees, including his pilots and his scheduler, Sarah Kellen.
Reinhart also represented a woman named Nadia Marcinkova, who Epstein once called his ‘Yugoslavian sex slave,’ according to the Post.
Both women were granted immunity in an agreement federal prosecutors granted Epstein in 2007, which allowed him to plead guilty to charges on a state level, instead of at the federal level. He served 13 months in county jail and was granted work release.
In a statement Monday, Trump shared that his Mar-a-Lago home was ‘under siege’ by a ‘large group’ of federal agents who were carrying out a search warrant.
While he did not share why his home was being raided, he shared that agents broke into his safe.
‘These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,’ Trump wrote.
‘Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.’
The former president said he has been cooperating with government agents and blamed the ‘Radical Left Democrats’ for the raid.
‘It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024,’ Trump stated, ‘Especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.’
Trump did not elaborate on the basis for the search but the Justice Department has been investigating boxes of documents containing classified information that Trump took to Florida. The former president has insisted that he did not violate federal law, and that the records in question were turned over to the National Archives and Record Administration.
He also claimed the raid was politically motivated and an attempt to hurt him before the midterm elections as he teases a possible second presidential run.
After he revealed the FBI had raided his home, dozens of furious supporters of the former president took to the streets outside his residence.
Trump’s supporters agreed with his messaging that the raid was a clear attempt to ruin his possible 2024 presidential run. Those who gathered held pro-Trump signs, as well as old campaign signs with former Vice President Mike Pence’s name crossed out.
Supporters gathered in droves, donning Trump attire and ‘MAGA’ flags, as police cordoned off Trump’s estate to allow for the raid to continue.
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