The U.S. Justice Department has released a heavily redacted affidavit justifying the unprecedented FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate earlier this month.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the warrant that led to the FBI’s Aug. 8 raid, had ordered the unsealing of the blacked-out affidavit by 12 noon Friday.
“The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorised spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records,” the 38-page affidavit started.
The eagerly awaited release came after the department had tried to fight it, insisting it comprised key details that were “highly likely to compromise future investigative steps” into whether the 45th president illegally kept classified information at Mar-a-Lago.
However, after reviewing the DOJ’s proposed redactions, the judge on Thursday ordered the release in an acknowledgment of the extraordinary public interest in the historic investigation.
“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,” Reinhart insisted in his ruling.
The blacked-out sections hide many key unanswered questions about the Aug. 8 raid, during which officials say 11 sets of classified documents, including information marked at the top secret level, were retrieved.
That includes hiding the identities of witnesses and key details about the “strategy, direction, scope, sources and methods” of the investigation that sparked a huge political firestorm.
Trump, 76, had instead repeatedly demanded the full, unredacted document be released.
On Thursday, he insisted he was “as innocent as a person can be.”
The FBI carried away more than 20 boxes from Mar-a-Lago, with 11 sets of classified government records, some labeled “top secret.”
The search was part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally removed and kept documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021 and whether he tried to obstruct the government’s investigation.
The documents the FBI seized were in addition to 700 pages worth of classified records the National Archives recovered from Mar-a-Lago in January, some of which entailed Special Access Program materials, a reference to security protocols reserved for the country’s most closely-held secrets.
Attorney General Merrick Garland later confirmed he had personally approved the extraordinary raid.
However, President Biden insisted this week that he “didn’t have any advance notice” of the raid on his predecessor.
“None, zero, not one single bit,” he said.
