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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A federal judge Thursday ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to unseal a portion of the affidavit that was used to obtain a search warrant for the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The judge asked the DOJ to come forward with proposed redactions for consideration.
U.S.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said it is the government’s burden under the
law to show why a redacted version should not be released as prosecutors failed
to convince the judge that the probable cause documents should not be made
public, The Associated Press reported. The judge gave the department a week to
submit a copy of the affidavit proposing the information it wants to keep
secret following the seizure of classified and top secret documents after it
conducted a search at Trump’s home, according to the Associated Press.
Reinhart
said he would give the government a “full and fair opportunity” to propose
redactions to the document, which means that certain aspects of the affidavit
would not be made public, according to The Washington Times.
In a West
Palm Beach courtroom, Judge Reinhart said Justice Department lawyers have until
August 25 to submit their request for redaction, according to The Washington
Times
Reinhart
said he would review the proposed redactions and, if he approves them, he would
order the documents to be released, otherwise he would hold a closed-door
hearing with the government on the matter, according to The Washington Times. The
judge did not order the immediate release of some documents related to the FBI
raid.
The
affidavit may reveal an array of facts about the investigation of Mr. Trump as
possible reasons why authorities sought a search warrant to access the former
president’s home.
Will the release of Mar-a-Lago affidavit undermine DOJ investigations into Trump's handling of classified documents?
The Justice Department is arguing that making the affidavit public would undermine its ongoing investigation, expose the identities of witnesses and could prevent others from coming forward and cooperating with the government, The Associated Press reported.
Jay Bratt, a
justice Department prosecutor argued on Thursday that the document should
remain sealed on grounds that the country was in a “volatile” state and
releasing the affidavit could jeopardize “several witnesses,” whose accounts of
Mr. Trump’s actions were specific enough that they could be easily identified,
according to The Washington Times.
“This is not
a precedent we want to set,” Mr. Bratt said, according to Washington Times.
“The government is very concerned about the safety of witnesses in the case.”
Attorneys
for the news organizations who are pressing for the release of the documents
argued that the unprecedented nature of the Justice Department’s investigation
necessitates public disclosure, according to The Associated Press.
“You can’t
trust what you can’t see,” said Chuck Tobin, a lawyer representing the AP and
several other news outlets.
The judge
ordered the redactions and also agreed to make public other documents,
including the warrant’s cover sheet, the Justice Department’s motion to seal
the documents and the judge’s order requiring them to be sealed, according to
The Associated Press.
The Associated
Press reported that those documents showed the FBI was specifically
investigating the “willful retention of national defense information,” the
concealment of government records and obstruction of a federal investigation.
Why did FBI agents seize from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate?
Operatives
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized several “top secret” and
more sensitive documents during its raid at former President Donald Trump’s
Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, home after his White House exit.
The
documents were revealed in court papers released last Friday after a federal
judge unsealed the warrant that gave authorization for FBI agents to enter the
former president’s property.
A property
receipt unsealed by the court shows FBI agents recovered 11 sets of classified
records from Trump’s residence during its search on Monday.
Some of the
seized documents include some marked top secret as well as “sensitive
compartmented information,” according to The Associated Press. Sensitive
compartmented information is a special category meant to protect the nation’s
most important secrets that could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to U.S.
interests if made available publicly, according to The Associated Press. No
specific details were made about documents by the court records.
The warrant
says federal agents were investigating potential violations of three different
federal laws, governing gathering, transmitting or losing defense information
under the Espionage Act and another statute that addresses concealment, mutilation
or removal of records. The third statute addresses the destruction, alteration
or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The property
receipt shows federal agents collected other presidential records such as the
pardoning of Trump ally Roger Stone, a “leatherboard box of documents,” and
information about the “President of France.”
Other items
recovered include a binder of photos, a handwritten note, “miscellaneous secret
documents” and “miscellaneous confidential documents.”