A redacted version of the document that supported the search warrant carried out earlier this month at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property has been made public by a federal court.
After media outlets like CBS News pressed for its public release, US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart last week ordered the Justice Department to provide him suggested redactions to the affidavit, which probably contains witness testimony and specific claims. Reinhart said on Thursday that the government had complied with its responsibilities to support the redactions.
On August 8, the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home as part of a probe into how he has handled presidential documents after leaving office. The search warrant and an inventory of the items recovered, which included an inventory of 11 sets of sensitive papers, were both unveiled on August 12.
Attorney General Merrick Garland and then Reinhart authorized the Mar-a-Lago search warrant on August 5. After reviewing the document and its references to evidence from investigations, Reinhart, a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, said last week that “all the material that the court relied upon is in the affidavit.”
Affirming the necessity to “guard the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security,” the Justice Department had argued that the affidavit should stay confidential. Prosecutors informed the court that the integrity of the investigation and the names of FBI agents and witnesses were at issue and that publishing the affidavit ran the danger of discouraging further cooperation.
The media organizations had contended that in order for the public to understand the Justice Department’s justifications for the search, at least some of the affidavit must be unsealed.
Earlier this week, Trump and his lawyers moved for the appointment of a special master to examine the records recovered from Mar-a-Lago before a separate court.
They maintained that in order to safeguard the former president’s constitutional rights, a special master—a court-appointed monitor—is required.
Additionally, Trump’s lawyers requested that the Justice Department provide them a more thorough inventory of the items that the FBI obtained from his Florida resort and return any items that did not fall within the parameters of the search warrant.
15 cartons of presidential memorabilia were sent by Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in January.
According to a letter written in May by the acting archivist of the Archives to a lawyer for the former president, the NARA discovered over 100 documents with classification markings after conducting its initial review of those boxes, including some classified as Top Secret and protected by delicate Special Access Programs.