On Thursday, television crews and members of the national press descended onto a Palm Beach courtroom in anticipation of the judge’s decision over whether to unseal an affidavit that led to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago this month.
As media outlets fight to reveal material that served as the basis for the unusual raid on the exclusive Florida club where Trump resides and spends a portion of the year, pro-Trump protestors entered the mix.
The government’s allegations of probable cause that a criminal may have been committed in connection with the removal and storage of a vast amount of sensitive information after former President Donald Trump left office would be revealed in the affidavit.
At 1pm, the judge who authorised the raid and permitted the publication of the search warrant, which included details about the vast amount of documents agents took, was scheduled to hear arguments over the release of the underlying contents.
The Justice Department opposes the action, which is being pursued by media outlets, on the grounds that publication would jeopardise the current investigation.
The Department of Justice argued, citing the reliance on witness testimony, that “the fact that this investigation involves highly classified materials further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the investigation and exacerbates the potential for harm if information is disclosed to the public prematurely or improperly.”
The media sites stated in their own petition last week that “until the events of this week, not since the Nixon Administration has the federal government utilised its authority to collect papers from a former President in such a public way.”
Christina Bobb, an attorney for Trump who was there during the raid earlier this month, said that she will be in the US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart’s courtroom.