U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart signed off on a search warrant allowing FBI agents to search former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 8 as part of a federal investigation examining whether Trump illegally removed classified documents from the White House upon leaving office.
Reinhart quickly faced criticism from Trump supporters for the role he played in the FBI search. Amid the backlash, some social media users also spread claims that Trump appointed Reinhart to his current position in 2018.
"BREAKING REPORT: Florida Federal Magistrate Bruce Reinhart who approved FBI RAID at Trump's home and represented several Epstein Associates after leaving US attorney's office in 2008 was appointed by DONALD TRUMP in 2018," reads a screenshot of a tweet shared to Facebook on Aug. 9.
The post, along with several in the same vein, garnered a few dozen shares, but the original tweet amassed over 24,000 likes since it was published Aug. 9.
But Trump had nothing to do with Reinhart's appointment in 2018.
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Legal experts told USA TODAY judges on the federal district court select magistrate judges. That's how Reinhart was appointed, according to a press release from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The president does not play a role in this process.
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