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The Department of Justice has submitted its proposed redactions to the sworn affidavit accompanying the FBI search warrant of President Trump’s home earlier this month.
“The court docket notes a filing by the Department of Justice under seal. The department faced a noon E.T. deadline set by the judge,” Fox News reported.
“The Justice Department has previously warned that releasing detailed information in the affidavit would jeopardize its ongoing investigation into documents stored on former President Donald Trump’s private property, and possibly endanger witnesses interviewed by the government,” the report added.
Last week, Judge Bruce Reinhart rejected an argument from the DOJ and admitted the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home was “unprecedented.”
In a filing, Reinhart rejected the Justice Department’s argument to keep the affidavit “sealed”, and he cited the “intense public and historical interest.”
Reinhart wrote that he rejects “the Government’s argument that the present record justifies keeping the entire Affidavit under seal.”
“The Government argues that even requiring it to redact portions of the Affidavit that could not reveal agent identities or investigative sources and methods imposes an undue burden on its resources and sets a precedent that could be disruptive and burdensome in future cases,” Reinhart wrote. “I do not need to reach the question of whether, in some other case, these concerns could justify denying public access; they very well might.”
He also added, “Particularly given the intense public and historical interest in an unprecedented search of a former President’s residence, the Government has not yet shown that these administrative concerns are sufficient to justify sealing.”
Reinhart said he has given the Justice Department an opportunity to propose redactions if he declined to seal the entire Affidavit, something he granted last week, giving the government a deadline of Thursday, August 25 at noon.
The motion states:
Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that by the deadline, the Government shall file under seal a submission addressing possible redactions and providing any additional evidence or legal argument that the Government believes relevant to the pending Motions to Unseal.
Trump’s attorney, Lindsey Halligan, spoke out on what she witnessed at the raid on Trump’s home.
“So I arrived around 11:00 a.m. and there were about 30-40 FBI agents that I saw, either of which were wearing suits, the rest were in cargo pants, masks, and gloves. And they basically had unfettered access to the property. They refused to talk to me. They refused to let me in. All I knew is that they were searching areas one, two, and three, which I understood to be the former president’s bedroom, his office, and a storage room. And other than that, we were not allowed to talk to them or go inside at all,” she said.
She said that they had access to everything on the property and that she has no idea what they looked at or did in the house.
“They knew that President Trump was in Bedminster and hasn’t been at Mar-a-Lago for some time. They thought they could sneak in, snoop around without attorneys present and in case they walked out with nothing, so nobody would know that they overreached this degree. It’s unprecedented in United States history. The government seems to be out of control. It’s plagued with manipulation, corruption, greed, and fraud,” she said.
Joe Biden has said he had zero knowledge or forewarning about the raid. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he personally approved the raid.
