Local law enforcement officers are seen in front of former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on August 9, 2022.
Giorgio Viera | AFP | beautiful pictures
The Justice Department on Friday revealed a heavily redacted copy of the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for the former President. Donald TrumpMar-a-Lago’s home.
A federal judge ordered the release of a key document in the face of objections from the DOJ, arguing that the document contained highly sensitive information about the ongoing criminal investigation into Trump. U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Reinhart accepted the DOJ’s proposals for the affidavit a day before it was made public.
The affidavit details the government’s position that it may have reason to believe that a search of Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida vacation home would produce evidence of illegality.
Read the revised affidavit here.
The DOJ is conducting a criminal investigation into the removal of records from the White House and their shipment to Mar-a-Lago when Trump leaves office in January 2021. By law, presidential records must be turned over. assigned to the National Archives and Records Administration when a president leaves office.
The search warrant itself, voluntarily disclosed by the DOJ less than a week after the August 8 raid, indicates that FBI agents were searching for documents that revealed violations of anti-obstruction laws. and delete official records, as well as American Spy. Act.
The FBI took away at least 20 boxes of items, including multiple sets of top-secret documents, according to an asset receipt also made public by the DOJ.
Last week, the government argued against releasing the affidavit, even in a redacted form.
“The actions required to minimize harm to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive that the remaining unsealed text would have no meaningful content,” said Jay Bratt, head of the investigation. The Counterintelligence and Export Control Division of DOJ’s National Security Division.
Bratt also argued that the affidavit “would serve as a roadmap for the government’s ongoing investigation” if released.
Reinhart disagreed and ordered the government to propose the transactions with the United States District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday. The judge accepted the DOJ’s transactions later that day.
The government last week said the Mar-a-Lago raid was part of an investigation “related to national security” and was still in the “early stages”.
Trump, who first revealed the FBI search of his Florida residence, has made himself the victim of a political attack by the Biden administration against the putative Republican leader in the election. 2024 presidential race.
The former president on Monday sued the government, asking a federal judge to block the DOJ from reviewing documents seized from Mar-a-Lago until a court-appointed third party reviews them.
“Political Hacks and Thugs have no right under the Presidential Records Act to hack Mar-a-Lago and steal everything in sight, including Passports and privileged documents,” Trump said in a post. posted on social media on Friday morning.
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