On August 8th, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. They seized 11 sets of documents, some of which were labeled “top secret.” Later that week, a federal judge unsealed the search warrant, which stated that Trump was being investigated for possibly violating the Espionage Act and two other criminal statutes. John Yoo of the University of California at Berkeley and Steve Vladeck of University of Texas Law School join host Jeffrey Rosen to talk about the raid, the investigation, and the constitutional questions that arise out of it.
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Today’s show was produced by Melody Rowell. Research was provided by Sam Desai, Vishan Chaudhary, Colin Thibault, and Samuel Turner. Many thanks to the whole team at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for hosting this conversation and allowing us to share it with We the People listeners.
Participants
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and as a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. Professor Yoo has worked in all three branches of government: general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and most notably, an official in the U.S. Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration. Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals and has written several books on American foreign policy and the power of the executive branch, including The Powers of War and Peace, Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush, and his most recent book, Defender in Chief: Donald Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power.
Steve Vladeck holds the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas Law School. He is the co-host of the “National Security Law Podcast” and is CNN’s lead Supreme Court analyst. He also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the shadow docket and is currently working on a book on the rise of the shadow docket, to be published Spring 2023. Professor Vladeck has argued multiple cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and various lower federal civilian and military courts.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Read the warrant behind the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
- Read “Why Did the FBI Raid Mar-a-Lago,” for AEI, by John Yoo and Robert Delahunty
- Listen to Steve Vladeck interviewed on Washington Journal from C-SPAN
- Read former U.S. Attorney Journal and Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson’s 1940 speech on the role of the federal prosecutor
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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