Judge Orders DOJ to Redact Affidavit Justifying Search of Trump's Home in Classified Docs Investigation
Joe Raedle/Getty. Inset: Zach Gibson - Pool/Getty Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Inset: Donald Trump.
A Florida judge ordered federal prosecutors to redact portions of the affidavit used to justify the search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in a criminal investigation of the alleged mishandling of White House records.
"This is going to be a considered, careful process," Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said in a ruling that indicates an inclination to release portions of the affidavit, landing on middle ground after media organizations requested its release.
A week ago, a U.S. court unsealed the warrant from the Aug. 8 search of Trump's Palm Beach, Fla., property, revealing that the Department of Justice is investigating the former president for potential violations of the Espionage Act and other national security-related statutes. According to a property receipt from the search, which was also unsealed last week, FBI agents removed 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked "top secret."
Unsealing the affidavit, which is used to justify issuing a warrant by showing probable cause for conducting the search, could reveal critical details of the government's ongoing investigation, including the identity of witnesses, a DOJ lawyer argued.
Attorney Jay Bratt, chief of the counterintelligence and export control section of the National Security Division, agreed there is "heightened public interest" in the DOJ's investigation, The New York Times reports.
But releasing the "very detailed and reasonably lengthy" affidavit could hinder prosecutors' efforts and endanger agents and witnesses, given increased threats against federal law enforcement and the violent rhetoric that's emerged since news of the search broke, Bratt added.
GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty A law enforcement officer stands outside Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence
"This is a volatile situation with respect to this particular search across the political spectrum, but certainly on one side in particular," Bratt said. "There is a real concern not just for the safety of these witnesses, but to chill other witnesses who may come forward and cooperate."
Judge Reinhart said it was "very important" that the public gets as "much information" as possible about the investigation and the search of a former president's home, according to the Times report, which notes the judge later wrote that the government "had not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed."
Reinhart instructed the DOJ investigators to send him the affidavit with their proposed redactions by next Thursday at noon so he could review them and decide if he agrees with the assessment of what parts can be withheld from the public. He did not set a date for the release of the affidavit and acknowledged that extensive redactions could turn the document into "meaningless gibberish," the Times reports.
Charles D. Tobin, a lawyer representing the media organizations requesting the release of the affidavit, argued that the investigation of former President Trump is a "case of historic importance."
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He called the search of Mar-a-Lago by the FBI "one of the most significant law enforcement events in the nation's history" and asked Judge Reinhart to provide "transparency" into the process, the Times reports.
Trump has said on Truth Social that he wants the affidavit released but attorneys representing him in the matter of the classified White House records were not involved in Thursday's hearing and have not filed any request to unseal the document.
One of the lawyers, Christina Bobb, was present but only as an observer and, according to the Times, confirmed that Trump's legal team did not intend to participate in arguments about releasing the affidavit.
