A judge has ordered the Justice Department to make public a revised version of the affidavit on which federal agents searched the Florida property of former President Donald Trump to look for classified documents.
A judge has ordered the Justice Department to make public a revised version of the affidavit on which federal agents searched the Florida property of former President Donald Trump to look for classified documents.
A judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to make public a revised version of the affidavit it relied on when. Federal Agents Search Florida Estate For looking for classified documents of former President Donald Trump.
US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart’s directive comes hours after federal law enforcement officials submitted parts of the affidavit under seal that they wish to keep secret as their investigation progresses. The judge set a Friday afternoon deadline for a revised, or blacked-out, version of the document.
The order means the public can soon get at least some additional details, which led FBI officials to Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 as part of an investigation into classified documents being kept at the Palm Beach property. searched. Documents already made public as part of the investigation show that the FBI retrieved 11 sets of classified documents from the property, including information marked at the top secret level.
Search warrant affidavits usually contain important information about an investigation, with agents explaining why they want to search a particular property and why they believe they are likely to find evidence of a possible crime there. Chances are.
In this case, however, given the sensitivity of the investigation and the unprecedented nature of the finding, the reforms proposed by the Justice Department are likely to be broad, reducing the likelihood that the public will get a detailed glimpse of the grounds of the finding or the direction of the investigation.
The department had earlier opposed the media organizations’ pleas to make any part of the affidavit public, saying the disclosure could contain personal information about witnesses and investigative tactics. But Reinhart acknowledged the extraordinary public interest in the investigation, saying he was unwilling to keep the entire document sealed and asked federal officials to privately submit the corrections he wanted to make.
Still, he acknowledged that the blacked-out portions could be so pervasive as to leave the public version of the document without any meaningful information.
In his order on Thursday, he said he was satisfied that “the government has fulfilled its burden of showing that its proposed amendments were designed narrowly to serve the legitimate interests of the government in the integrity of the ongoing investigation.” And the least option is to seal the whole. Affidavit.”
Many news media organizations, including The Associated Press, argued in court last week for disclosure of the affidavit, citing extraordinary public interest in a federal search of a former president’s home. Mr Trump and some of his supporters have also encouraged the release of the document.
After the Justice Department submitted its filing under seal on Thursday, the media coalition asked the judge to unsealed portions of the department’s brief and instruct the government, “going forward,” to publicly unsealed any To submit a revised version of the document. The groups noted that important information about the investigation is already public.
The news organizations wrote, “At least, no part of the brief states the facts about the investigation, without disclosing additional ones that are not yet publicly available, in addition to any other part that the investigation has.” do not pose any threat to them, they should be closed.” ,
He further said, “If and when additional facts emerge and are confirmed to be correct, or certain facts no longer pose a threat to the investigation for any other reason, there is no justification to keep them under seal.” ”