Bruce Reinhart, The Magistrate Judge Who Approved the Mar-a-Lago Search: Since the F.B.I. looked for classified documents at the Mar-a-Lago estate of former President Donald J. Trump, Bruce E. Reinhart, the federal judge in Florida who signed the warrant allowing the search, has been in the spotlight.
His statement on Thursday that he might be willing to unseal parts of the affidavit that was used to support the search warrant once the government suggested changes only made the scrutiny stronger.
Judge Reinhart has already gotten a lot of bad press from Republicans and has been the target of fake news and online attacks, many of which were anti-Semitic. Right-wing critics say that his approval of the search warrant was a partisan attempt to bother a former president.
Judge Reinhart was quickly criticized by well-known Republicans, like Florida Senator Marco Rubio, for a political donation he gave to President Barack Obama in 2008. (He has also given money to Republicans, such as Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, during his run for president in 2015.
But as a magistrate judge, Judge Reinhart made a decision that was typical of his job, say legal experts. They say that magistrate judges often help district court judges do things like review warrants.
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In 2018, he was given his oath of office as a magistrate judge for the Southern District of Florida.
After getting his degree from Princeton, he went to the University of Pennsylvania to get his law degree in 1987.
Court records from more than a decade ago show that he worked for the Justice Department’s public integrity section in the criminal division from 1988 to 1994. Then, he went to work for the Treasury Department to help write rules for other agencies that investigate crimes.
He was also a federal prosecutor for 11 years in the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
During his time there, the police were looking into Jeffrey Epstein, a rich businessman who was accused of luring teenage girls to his mansion in Palm Beach and then sexually abusing them. In exchange for pleading guilty to less serious charges, Mr. Epstein didn’t have to go to prison for a long time.
The Justice Department later said that this deal showed “poor judgment.” Mr. Reinhart has said that he did not help with the investigation. Soon after he left the Justice Department in late 2008, he went into private practice and defended some of Mr. Epstein’s employees who were accused of helping with sex trafficking.
One of these clients was Sarah Kellen, who was said to have helped Mr. Epstein find young girls.
Lawyers for Mr. Epstein’s victims said in court papers that Mr. Reinhart had broken Florida bar rules. A complaint said that his actions “gave the impression” that he was trying to get along with Mr. Epstein while working at the Justice Department in order to get a good job.
Paul G. Cassell, the lawyer for the people who complained about Judge Reinhart’s involvement, wouldn’t say anything. When asked for a comment, Judge Reinhart did not give one.
In court documents, Mr. Reinhart denied that he had done anything wrong. He said in a sworn affidavit that he had not taken part in his office’s investigation of Mr. Epstein and had no special knowledge that would help him defend Ms. Kellen. He said that the false accusations hurt his reputation.
But Judge Reinhart’s opponents jumped on the fact that he knew Mr. Epstein right away and started spreading false information about it.
In a Fox News segment last week, a host showed a photo that had been changed to make it look like Judge Reinhart was sitting on a plane with Mr. Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty last year of helping Mr. Epstein sexually abuse children.
In 2019, Mr. Epstein was charged again in New York, but he was found dead in his cell. It looked like he had killed himself.
A day later, the host, Brian Kilmeade, said on Twitter that the image “wasn’t real” and that the network was “jokingly showing a meme.”
Last night while subbing for Tucker Carlson, we showed you an image of Judge Bruce Reinhart w/ Ghislaine Maxwell that was sourced on screen to a meme pulled from Twitter & wasn’t real. This depiction never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest.
— Brian Kilmeade (@kilmeade) August 12, 2022
But all the attention on Judge Reinhart has also made the authorities in the area tighten security. Last week, antisemitic threats caused his synagogue to cancel a Friday night Shabbat service. The police in his neighborhood also said that they had increased patrols near his house.
Stay tuned for more updates, Nog Magazine.