The execution of a federal search warrant at the residence of a former U.S. president is more than an extraordinary occurrence.

Things like that just don’t happen.

Pick a presidential scandal in our history – Teapot Dome, Watergate, Iran-Contra or Whitewater. It just doesn’t happen. Not until Monday, anyway, when a host of FBI special agents, lawful warrant in hand, rewrote the history books.

Now, let me tell you why the FBI search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Monday is such a big deal.

The former president of the United States is suspected of committing a crime. As obvious as that may seem given all that has transpired over the past seven years, the fact of the matter is that, as a nation of laws, we’ve never had a president who has been so antipathetic toward them.

The presumption of innocence is an important tenet of American jurisprudence. We, all of us, even corrupt former presidents, are afforded the rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution when it comes to things like searches and seizures.

Two centuries of justice under a constitutionally established rule of law ensures that.

Which is why the criticisms coming from the supporters rushing to the former president’s defense in the wake of the search make no sense.

The FBI executes search warrants all the time. Contrary to the fearmongers and conspiracy theorists among us, they are not political acts. Not even when directed against a politician. The reason for their use is simple and straightforward – to find evidence of a crime.

The process to obtain a warrant is also straightforward (though not always simple). Investigators and prosecutors working together set forth facts obtained during an investigation to establish a “reason to believe” that a crime was committed. In the case of a bank robbery, for instance, those facts might include a detailed description of the robber, fingerprints or the amount of money stolen. Those facts are then presented to a magistrate who reviews them and decides whether or not to authorize the warrant. If a warrant is authorized, investigators proceed to search the location.

In the matter of the search executed on the former president’s residence, all these steps were surely followed. And then some. I speak from experience that a search like this, especially in the current political environment, would have been scrutinized at all levels of the FBI and DOJ before it even went to the magistrate.

Given the former president’s privileged status, the information supporting the warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago had to have gone way beyond the norm. It wouldn’t be enough, for example, for a source to say, “I believe the smoking gun is in the safe.”

He, she or it would almost certainly have had to provide a specific and timely first-hand witness that they knew it was in the safe.

Put another way, the evidence would have to be good enough to get a warrant and be trial worthy, which is to say, beyond a reasonable doubt (a much higher standard than “reason to believe”). That kind of thing drives investigators nuts, but there it is.

What’s more, the basis for a warrant such as this one would have to have been approved by the U.S. attorney general himself before it went to the magistrate.

It’s a rigorous process, and rightly so. To diminish it as the former president’s supporters have attempted to do is a reprehensible offense not only to the rule of law, but to the Constitution itself.

Despite all the hoops investigators have had to jump through to get it authorized, Monday’s activity at Mar-a-Lago was still just the execution of a search warrant. An investigative step. While the former president’s own attorney has already indicated “paper” was seized – which means investigators got something – it must be reviewed and determined if it can support further investigation.

The FBI and its Justice department partners know what they’re up against. They know what’s at stake. And they know what they must do to serve justice. The well-executed search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was just the beginning. Now it’s about bringing charges and proving them. It’s never an easy task, especially with a subject as wily (and lucky) as the former president. But this time I can’t help but feel like they are finally onto something that will stick.