What is it going to take to break this fever?

After a violent attack on an FBI field office in Ohio that resulted in a shootout and death of an armed assailant, Attorney General Merrick Garland filed a motion in federal court this afternoon to unseal the application for the search warrant for Donald Trump’s personal residence, Mar a Lago, and the “redacted Property Receipt listing items seized pursuant to the search.”  The move followed three days of agitation by Republicans, including members of Congress and candidates for public office, who used rhetoric about “Gestapo tactics” and called for violence and “civil war.”

This morning, a right-wing fanatic walked into an FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, fired a nail gun at office employees and brandished an AR-15 style rifle before leading police and FBI officers on a vehicular chase, exchanging gunfire with them in the process.  The suspect, Ricky Shiffer, 42, was killed after a lengthy standoff.  At this point, it is known that he posted a video of himself at a pro-Trump rally on January 5, 2020, in Washington on the night before the Capitol was assaulted by a pro-Trump mob.  He also posted a video he apparently took with his cell phone on the Capitol grounds on January 6, and tweeted about the Proud Boys, recommending that his followers “save ammunition…and learn how they did it in the Revolutionary War.”

Attorney General Garland defended the men and women of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department as “dedicated, patriotic public servants.”  He continued, “Every day, they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism and other threats to their safety while safeguarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them.”

The judge in West Palm Beach who issued the search warrant for Mar a Lago gave the former president until 3 p.m. tomorrow to object to the release of the search warrant and list of seized items.