March 28, 2024 2:14 PM
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Judge orders unsealing of redacted affidavit in Trump search – Associated Press

A judge ordered the Justice Department on Thursday to make public a redacted version of the affidavit it relied on when federal agents searched the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump to look for classified documents.

The directive from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart came hours after federal law enforcement officials submitted under seal the portions of the affidavit that they want to keep secret as their investigation moves forward. The judge set a deadline of noon Friday for a redacted, or blacked-out, version of the document.

The order means the public could soon get at least some additional details about what led FBI officials to search Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 as part of an investigation into classified documents being retained at the Palm Beach property. Documents already made public as part of the investigation show that the FBI retrieved from the property 11 sets of classified documents, including information marked at the top secret level.

Search warrant affidavits typically contain vital information about an investigation, with agents spelling out why they want to search a particular property and why they believe they are likely to find evidence of a potential crime there.

In this case, though, the redactions proposed by the Justice Department are likely to be extensive given the sensitivity of the investigation and unprecedented nature of the search, lessening the chance that the public will receive a detailed glimpse of the basis for the search or the direction of the probe.

In his order Thursday, Reinhart said the department had made compelling arguments to leave sealed broad swaths of the document that, if disclosed, would reveal grand jury information; the identities of witnesses and “uncharged parties”; and details about the investigation’s “strategy, direction, scope, sources and methods.”

But he also said he was satisfied “that the Government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the Government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit.”

The department had earlier contested arguments by media organizations to make any portion of the affidavit public, saying the disclosure could contain private information about witnesses and about investigative tactics. But Reinhart, acknowledging the extraordinary public interest in the investigation, said last week that he was disinclined to keep the entire document sealed and told federal officials to submit to him in private the redactions it wanted to make.

Multiple news media organizations, including The Associated Press, argued in court last week for the disclosure of the affidavit, citing the extraordinary public interest in the federal search of a former president’s home. Trump and some of his supporters have also encouraged the document’s release.

After the Justice Department submitted its filing under seal on Thursday, the media coalition responded by asking the judge to unseal portions of the department’s brief and to direct the government, “going forward,” to file publicly a redacted version of any sealed document it submits. The groups noted that significant information about the investigation is already public.

“At a minimum, any portions of the Brief that recite those facts about the investigation, without revealing additional ones not yet publicly available — in addition to any other portions that pose no threat to the investigation — should be unsealed,” the news organizations wrote.

They added, “If and when additional facts come to light and are confirmed to be accurate, or certain facts no longer pose a threat to the investigation for any other reason, there is no justification for maintaining them under seal either.”

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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

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Find more on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump

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3 Responses

  1. The AP is one of the most predictable to leave out or slant reporting news. Sources are selected not for their factual information but their predetermined position on the story to be written. We must diligently use our cognitive skills when reading material and compare content to what we have understood over time on similar subjects. Does this make sense? Should I believe it? Media coverage on anything Trump has been unbalanced since early in 2015 when Donald John Trump came down the escalator in Trump Tower and it only gets worse. Rush Limbaugh called them “The drive by media” as in gang-bangers and Rush was right.

  2. Bruce Reinhart once left his job as a federal prosecutor to work as a defense attorney on behalf of individuals (pilot, scheduler) connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The guy is an ambulance-chaser.

    Bruce Reinhart, donated $2000 to Barack Obama. Aren’t judges supposed to be apolitical?

    Bruce Reinhard quote:

    “Thank you, Robert Reich, for saying what many of us feel, ‘John Lewis is the conscience of America. Donald Trump doesn’t have the moral stature to kiss John Lewis’s feet.’”

    And we’re supposed to believe this clown was/is/will be impartial? Yeah, right.

    Redaction = “we have something to hide”

    Redaction = leave in all the stuff that hurts Trump, redact and double redact all the stuff that helps Trump.

    And don’t believe all that nonsense about protecting witnesses from harassment. The Radical Left Money Thieves don’t give a hoot about witnesses, unless they have money they can steal from them.

  3. Today’s ALGA (Authentic Liberal Gibberish Award) goes to the clowns that say the redactions are to “protect witnesses”. Yeah, right.

    The redactions were done by people that hate Donald Trump. Make no mistake about it, they redacted everything that might help Trump and left in only things that will hurt Trump.

    This is another Radical Left Money Thief Clown Show. They want to destroy Donald Trump because they know he’ll win in 2024 and then the Radical Left Money Thieves won’t be in a position to steal money. Simple as that.

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