U.S. Justice Dept. poised to release redacted affidavit on Trump search
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[August 26, 2022]
By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice
Department is expected to make public on Friday a redacted version of
the affidavit that led to the Aug. 8 FBI search of former president
Donald Trump's Florida home, a move that could shed more light on the
evidence that led to the unprecedented search.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Thursday ordered the redacted
document to be released by noon (1600 GMT) on Friday, a ruling that came
just hours after a Justice Department spokesman confirmed that
prosecutors had submitted a sealed copy of the affidavit with proposed
redactions for the judge's review.
Reinhart, who approved the warrant that preceded the FBI search of
Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, ordered a partial release of
the affidavit despite objections from prosecutors who wanted to keep the
entire thing sealed to protect the integrity of their ongoing
investigation.
The affidavit, a document that is not usually made public unless someone
is charged with a crime, is a sworn statement outlining the evidence
that gave the department probable cause to seek a search warrant.
Just how much the redacted affidavit will reveal remains to be seen.
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In his order on Thursday, Reinhart said the Justice Department had valid
reasons to keep some of the document secret, including the need to
protect the identities of witnesses and federal agents as well as the
government's investigation and strategy and grand jury material.
"The government has met its burden of showing that its proposed
redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government's legitimate
interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least
onerous alternative to sealing the entire affidavit," Reinhart wrote.
The FBI in its court-approved search at Mar-a-Lago carried away more
than 20 boxes containing 11 sets of classified government records, some
of which were labeled "top secret."
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump's
Mar-a-Lago resort is seen in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., February 8,
2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo
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The search was part of a federal investigation into whether Trump
illegally removed and kept documents from the White House when he
left office in January 2021 and whether he tried to obstruct the
government's investigation.
The documents the FBI seized were in addition to 700 pages worth of
classified records the U.S. National Archives recovered from Mar-a-Lago
in January, some of which entailed Special Access Program materials,
a reference to security protocols reserved for the country's most
closely-held secrets.
After Trump accused the FBI of political retribution against him,
Attorney General Merrick Garland made the unusual decision to
confirm the existence of the department's investigation and asked a
court to unseal large portions of the search warrant and property
receipt listing the seized items.
The department declined to release the affidavit, prompting media
companies to file a legal challenge to get it unsealed.
Trump on social media called for the document to be unsealed, though
his lawyers had not weighed in on the matter.
He has filed a separate civil case asking another judge to halt the
FBI's review of the seized records pending the appointment of a
special master to independently review them for materials that could
be protected under executive privilege, a legal principle that lets
a president shield some information.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has asked Trump's legal team to
file a more targeted request by Friday that better explains what
relief the former president is seeking and why his request should
not be sent instead to Reinhart.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Kim
Coghill)
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