The FBI’s affidavit supporting the raid at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home appears to be based on the president possessing classified materials and messy record-keeping.
The raid on Trump’s home on August 8, 2022, was the first time the home of a president of the United States had ever been tossed by the feds.
According to the redacted document, the FBI believed that Trump had in his possession a variety of classified materials including materials marked with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) labels, perhaps supporting the notion that the former president was looking at documents concerning the Russia collusion hoax.
The documents the FBI claims support their raid of Mar-a-Lago will probably look ugly for former President Donald Trump. After all, these are documents used to convince a judge to approve a never-before-tried search on a former president in what looks by all appearances to be in contravention of the U.S. Constitution.
A couple of things to mention here as we read through the documents and update this story. In a memorandum explaining the search warrant affidavit, the FBI outlined that the redacted portions would remain sealed, in an apparent deal with the judge.
Here are some of the accommodations made for the FBI with Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart:
- The redacted material remains under seal
- Witness identities will remain secret
- Minor information which may out law enforcement will remain secret
- Outing certain information would allow Trump to “frustrate” their investigation
Reporters trying to get a look at the documents crashed the DOJ’s PACER website (but you can read it below).
The court site appears to be crashing. Thus, we have not seen the affidavit, only a memorandum of law which also has redactions.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 26, 2022
Both law professor Jonathan Turley and Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton reported the crash.
Turley observed that the speed with which these documents were released shows that the judge just went along with all recommended FBI redactions. He called it “concerning.”
We understand that the affidavit itself is heavily redacted, as expected. And, considering that the memo introducing the affidavit was itself redacted, we don’t doubt the final product will look like a blacked-out crossword puzzle.
We’ll update this breaking story as we get information.
Read the redacted document below:
Mar-a-Lago Affidavit by PJ Media on Scribd
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