Given the stakes of the case, the Justice Department and FBI have been even more quiet than usual, declining even to confirm law enforcement activity at Mar-a-Lago. That’s meant that the majority of information about the search has been coming from Trump’s team and even directly from Trump, a notoriously unreliable narrator who has incentive to portray himself as the innocent victim of overreach by a “deep state” out to get him.

One Trump-appointed former U.S. Attorney told NBC News that they were “torn” about whether or not the Justice Department should break protocol in this “historic, almost breathtaking situation.” But, that person noted, there is no law or congressional mandate that the department stick with protocol.

“You don’t want to impugn someone if the media isn’t going to get it right, or exactly right,” the former U.S. Attorney said. “But what I would also say is when you’re dealing with the former President of the United States, and a search warrant being executed on his home, it definitely is a situation where the policies don’t apply.”

“If DOJ is unwilling to release more information about the predication behind the search warrant, then it would just be helpful to know that both the director of the FBI and the attorney general of the United States approved the action, the execution of the search warrant.”