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The affidavit for the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s residence, which was unsealed by a federal court in Florida on Friday, was heavily redacted and contained little new information.
But the dossier has been at the center of a massive investigation into the former president, and has sparked strong reactions from both sides of the political scene.
Here are the main things you should know about what was and wasn’t included in your affidavit:
1. Plenty of black ink
About 20 pages of the 38-page document were heavily or completely redacted. On page 24, at least some of the information was blacked out.
Trump Raid Search Warrant Affidavit Unsealed: Read Document
Significant redaction was expected given the Department of Justice’s claims about the confidentiality of the case.
“Premature disclosure of the contents of this affidavit and related documents could have a serious and negative impact on the ongoing investigation, give criminals an opportunity to escape, It can seriously undermine the effectiveness of an investigation by destroying evidence (whether stored or otherwise) and altering the pattern of crime.” Department of Justice writes.
2. Too many pages
The length of the affidavit is also worth noting. The average search warrant affidavit from federal law enforcement is significantly shorter than the 38-page document the FBI filed with Justice of the Peace Bruce Reinhart.
Professor Mark W. Smith, a professor at the Ave Maria School of Law and a senior fellow in law and public policy at King’s College, told Fox News Digital that the length is still questionable. He said that there is
“The length of the probable cause affidavit is not unprecedented, but it is a bit strange. “It often means something,” he said. increase.”
Other legal experts said the length may have stemmed from extra caution, given that the warrant was to search the former president’s home.
Federal Judge Releases Redacted Trump Assault Affidavit Used by FBI to Search MAR-A-LAGO: Live Update
3. The affidavit cites other confidentially marked documents owned by Trump
The affidavit cites about 200 documents Trump has previously handed over that contain classified markings. The FBI said in his May that it inspected 15 boxes of his documents that President Trump filed with the National Archives and Records Administration earlier this year.
According to the affidavit, “preliminary triage of classified-marked documents revealed approximately the following numbers: 67 documents marked as confidential, 92 documents marked as confidential, and up to 184 unique documents with classification marks, including 25 documents marked as confidential.” “Based on my training and experience, I know that documents classified at these levels usually contain NDIs.”
Trump and his legal team claim the former president had sweeping powers to declassify any document he wanted. They say all the documents found at Mar-a-Lago were declassified by his order.
“His constitutional authority to classify and declassify documents is liberal,” Trump attorney M. Evan Cocoran wrote in a letter cited in the affidavit.
There are several laws that allow you to be prosecuted for possessing information important to national security, regardless of whether the information is classified. But it is unprecedented for a former president to be prosecuted for such crimes.
4. Justice Department said there was a “probable cause” of “obstruction”
In addition to suspicions that Mar-a-Lago has more documents marked as classified, the Justice Department believes it can find evidence that Trump is obstructing the investigation. said.
“Furthermore, we have good reason to believe that additional documents that contain classified NDIs or are presidential records subject to record-keeping requirements currently remain in PREMISES,” it said. There is also good reason to believe that evidence of
It’s not clear how the Justice Department believes Trump may have interfered, or when it happened. Other federal investigations have investigated Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice in recent years.
FBI said it had “probable cause” to believe additional classified documents remained in MAR-A-LAGO, affidavit says
5. Trump’s response
Trump took down the Justice Department for his ‘Truth Society’ post social media network Friday. He called the investigation a “witch hunt”.
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“The affidavit has been heavily redacted!!! There is no mention of ‘Nuclear’, full public relations ploys by the FBI and DOJ, or our close working relationship on the exchange of documents – I We gave them a lot,” Trump said. “Judge Bruce Reinhart should never have allowed someone to break into my house.”
Fox News’ Bill Mears, Will Riccardella, Brooke Singman, Harris Alic, and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.