My best guess is that this raid is a threat, rather than an attempt to gather any evidence. Taking photos of cases isn't much use, as the internals of the cases are where the data is, and it's the data that is of merit in a server. That, and the manner in which the data is used.

However, a visit by belligerents with weapons gets your attention, and if Newsweek was considering publishing an article about, say 33k emails that had recently been rediscovered after someone tried to delete them, that just might contain the end of careers, perhaps evidence of hanging offenses, then this might cause them to reconsider.