Judge Who Signed Trump Warrant Repped Dem Lawmaker Accused of Putting Mistress on Payroll

The federal magistrate judge who signed the warrant authorizing the FBI raid on former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence is a former criminal defense attorney who represented a former Democratic congressman investigated by the bureau for putting his mistress on his congressional payroll.

Government records indicate that Judge Bruce E. Reinhart, one of three federal magistrates in West Palm Beach, signed the unprecedented warrant targeting Trump, who denounced the "unannounced raid" on his property as "an assault [that] could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries."

As a criminal defense attorney, Reinhart represented Democratic congressman Tim Mahoney, a Florida lawmaker who ran on a platform of "faith, family, and personal responsibility" while carrying on a series of extramarital affairs. Mahoney subsequently came under FBI investigation for hiring one of his mistresses to work in his congressional office before putting her on his campaign payroll.

Prior to becoming a judge in 2018, Reinhart spent 12 years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the office tasked with investigating the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein for sex trafficking in 2005.