MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber quoted rapper Jay Z on Tuesday while discussing FBI warrant to search Anthony Weiner's laptop based on redacted court filings released by the bureau hours earlier.
Host Katy Tur and Melber discussed the FBI unsealing its search warrant and other documents that shed light on the bureau's reasoning for reopening its probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server days before the presidential election. A federal judge had ordered the court filings be released to the public by noon on Tuesday.
The FBI said it reopened the investigation after it found relevant emails on the laptop of Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI was separately investigating Weiner for allegedly sexting an underage girl when agents discovered new messages on the laptop, which he shared with Abedin.
"You might remember this was a big controversy in the final weeks of the campaign," Tur said, introducing the story.
"It's the application authorities submitted to get a search warrant into emails discovered on Anthony Wiener's computer," she continued while holding up the documents released by the FBI. "I don't see anything here that said they had a right or a cause to get into Anthony Wiener's computer and to tell the public they were going back into this."
Melber responded to Tur with lyrics from rapper Jay Z's hit song "99 Problems." In the song, released in 2004, Jay Z discusses his lack of trouble with women and how he knows his rights regarding police search and seizure without a warrant.
"Police always need probable cause to go look at your stuff," Melber said.
"No greater authority than Jay Z's "99 Problems" when he says, 'My glove compartment is locked, so is the trunk in the back. And I know my rights, you are going to need a warrant for that,'" Melber calmly rapped.
Tur seemed to enjoy Melbur's rap skills.
"That is why you can't just go into someone's trunk, in that case Jay Z's, and you can't go into Anthony Wiener's laptop. No matter what you may think about it, you have to have probable cause," Melbur said.
He did note that key information regarding the FBI's justification for searching Weiner's laptop could have been redacted, adding that some important factors may be blacked out in the documents.
Update Dec. 21 4:49 P.M.: A previous version of this article stated that Melber suggested the FBI didn’t have probable cause to issue a warrant. Melber said in the segment that search warrants are not usually hard to get.