Judge Bruce Reinhart on Friday has unsealed records related to the FBI’s search warrant affidavit that purportedly justified the raid on former President Donald Trump.
Docket entry 99 states: “Order to Unseal. ORDERED that the Notice of Filing of Redacted Memorandum and the accompanying attachment, along with all associated motions to seal and orders to seal, Docket Entries 88. 92. 96. 97, 98, and 98-1, shall be unsealed. Signed by Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart on 8/26/2022/).”
The Trump search warrant affidavit with redactions can be read below:
Trump Raid Affidavit (with Redactions) by Kyle Becker on Scribd
The U.S. Attorney’s argument that the document remain sealed was released accompanying the judge’s order.
“The United States hereby gives notice that it is filing the attached document, which is a redacted version of material previously filed in this case number under seal: the United States’ Sealed, Ex Parte Memorandum of Law Regarding Proposed Redactions (DE89),” the document states. “In the interest of transparency, as well as the principle that limitations on public access to judicial proceedings should be “narrowly tailored,” Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court, 457 U.S. 596, 607 (1982), the government will move at the appropriate time to unseal this notice and the redacted version of its Ex Parte Memorandum.”
A sample of the redactions in the document can be seen below:
The following is from page 6:
It continues onto page 7:
And onto page 8:
The Department of Justice, under U.S. Attorney Juan Atonio Gonzales, further argued that the text marked for redaction should remain under seal.
“For the reasons stated herein, the Court should maintain under seal the text the government has marked for redaction,” the attorney states. :The government defers to the Court to determine whether the redactions are ‘so extensive that’ release of the remainder of the affidavit would ‘result in a meaningless disclosure.’ Should the Court order disclosure of a redacted version of the affidavit, and if the Court agrees with the government’s proposed redactions, the government will submit a final version of the redacted affidavit for public release.”
The entire document can be read below:
Florida Court Document on FBI Search Warrant Affidavit by Kyle Becker on Scribd
New docket entries for the Florida Southern District Court earlier indicated that several entries are to be ‘restricted/sealed until further notice.’Florida judge Bruce Reinhart, who had originally signed off on the FBI’s search warrant, gave the Department of Justice until noon on Friday to submit its advised redactions on the search warrant affidavit used to justify the unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump.
Judge Bruce Reinhart in a filing on Monday morning announced that formally he rejected “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.”
“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,” he added.
It remains to be seen how much of the search warrant affidavit will be redacted, as the judge previously gave the Department of Justice until Thursday to submit its advised redactions for the document out of argued national security concerns.
“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,” the motion stated.
Donald Trump earlier called for the “completely unredacted” affidavit that purportedly justified the FBI raid.
“There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!), by a very large number of gun-toting FBI Agents, and the Department of ‘Justice,’” Trump wrote.
“In the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN,” Trump added.
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit asking that a Special Master be instated to secure documents that fall under executive privilege and attorney-client privilege.
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