Since the morning of the Mar-a-Lago FBI raid, former President Donald Trump has been crying ‘foul’ suggesting that the FBI had absolutely no grounds to storm his private residence and ‘steal’ personal belongings including documents he said he ‘declassified’.
Judge Bruce Reinhart, who gave the FBI his blessing to ransack Mar-a-Lago is now demanding the affidavit for the raid be ‘unsealed’ by Friday noon – but not all of it – only parts of it.
Reinhart’s order came just hours after a Justice Department spokesman confirmed prosecutors had in fact submitted a sealed copy of its affidavit with proposed redactions to the judge. The affidavit is a sworn statement outlining the evidence that gave the Justice Department probable cause to seek a search warrant.
The FBI removed 20 boxes containing 11 sets of what they claim are ‘classified’ government records, some of which are labeled ‘top secret’.
Trump, who claims he has nothing to hide, wants the entire affidavit unsealed in its entirety, and attorney general Merrick Garland, who made the unusual decision to confirm the existence of the department’s investigation, also asked a court to unseal large portions of the search warrant and property receipt listing the seized items.
At first, the department declined to release the affidavit, prompting backlash from both the former President and the media who threatened to file a legal challenge to get the documents unsealed.
At a hearing last week, prosecutors asked Judge Reinhart not to release the affidavit, suggesting it could harm their ongoing investigation and spook witnesses out of cooperating as well as create ‘security risks’ for FBI agents.
Reinhard ultimately decided that he does not believe the entire document be kept from the public, and asked the Justice Department to provide a copy with opposed redactions. Reinhart, did, however, give them the opportunity to appeal if they do not agree with his proposed version.
Donald Trump 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.
