The article from that thread has evidence that this was a deliberate conspiracy. Regardless of the flimsy justification, the affidavits for the search were back

The article from that thread has evidence that this was a deliberate conspiracy. Regardless of the flimsy justification, the affidavits for the search were backdated after the search happened. So the question of how valid the search may have been is moot if they are provably done in bad faith. They didn't even bother with a justification until they were worried about being caught. And apparently also targeted other local pols with similarly baseless searches. That puts the whole ordeal in the conspiracy zone and implicates a lot of people in a lot of felonies.