On Thursday afternoon, attorneys for many of the nation’s top media businesses will attempt to convince a federal magistrate judge to release the affidavit supporting the order that authorized FBI investigators to search the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump last week.
The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CBS and the other broadcast TV networks, CNN, and others want U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart to release the affidavit despite objections from the U.S. Justice Department, which claims that its investigation into Trump’s handling of “highly classified material” would be compromised.
The media firms say that releasing the affidavit would assist the public assess whether the Justice Department had legal reasons for the search or whether it was part of a vendetta by the Biden administration against Trump, as the former president and his supporters claim. In the interest of transparency, Trump advocated for the publication of the unredacted affidavit in a post on Truth Social last week.
Attorney Carol Jean LoCiero, who represents the Times and others, writes, “The issue is of the utmost public interest, as it involves the activities of current and former government officials.” “President Trump criticized the search as a ‘attack that could only occur in Third World countries,’ said agents ‘even smashed into my safe,’ and questioned the search’s legitimacy in other ways.”
In a court filing, attorneys for the Department of Justice said that the investigation into Trump’s handling of “highly secret data” is ongoing and that the paper contains critical witness information.
The filing by the U.S. attorney in Miami, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, and a top Justice Department national security official, Jay Bratt, states that releasing the affidavit would “cause significant and irreparable harm to this ongoing criminal investigation.”
“If published, the affidavit would serve as a road map for the government’s current investigation, exposing detailed facts about its direction and anticipated trajectory in a way that would endanger future investigative steps,” they said.
“Should the Court order partial unsealing of the affidavit, the government respectfully asks an opportunity to submit recommended redactions to the Court,” the Justice Department added.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Trump’s attorneys had not declared their participation in the hearing on the court’s docket.
The FBI conducted a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on August 8, removing 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were not only labelled top secret but also contained “critical compartmented information,” according to a list of what was seized that was made public on Friday. This category is intended to protect the nation’s most vital secrets, the disclosure of which could cause “exceptionally grave” harm to U.S. interests. The court records lack clear details regarding the information the documents may contain.
National Archives officers collected 15 boxes of presidential materials from Mar-a-Lago in January, some of which contained classified information. In July, a Trump attorney certified to investigators that all classified materials had been transferred to the National Archives.
Trump stated last week that he declassified all Mar-a-Lago-seized documents while he was in office. Despite the fact that a living president has broad declassification authority, Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House intelligence committee, stated on “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he has seen no proof that Trump declassified the data while in office.
Schiff added that the ability to declassify information does not extend to a past president, and he called it “absurd” for Trump to assert “18 months after the event” that he retrospectively declassified the records he brought to Mar-a-Lago.
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, told Robert Costa of CBS News that Trump’s handling of confidential papers “alarmed” him.
According to Bolton, intelligence briefers would present the president with images or graphs.
“Frequently, the president would inquire, “Can I keep this?” And in my experience, intelligence briefers would typically respond, “Well, sir, we’d prefer to retract that.” “Bolton stated. But occasionally they forgot.
The National Archives asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s management of records earlier this year. The National Archives also stated at the time that some of the documents Trump gave them had been torn apart and reassembled with tape.
Monday, Trump’s allies on the House Judiciary Committee issued letters to key Biden administration officials seeking the release of papers and communications about the FBI search of Trump’s residence.