Judge Orders Release Of Redacted Mar-A-Lago Affidavit

Just hours after the Justice Department submitted a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, Judge Bruce E. Reinhart accepted the proposal and ordered it released by noon Friday. The release may (or may not given the extensive redactions) reveal potential revelatory details that led to the search. https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1562894055855779840 From the New York Times:

Judge Reinhart appeared to accept the requested cuts and, moving more quickly than government lawyers had expected, directed the department to release the redacted affidavit in a brief two-page order issued from Federal District Court in Southern Florida.

The order said that he had found the Justice Department’s proposed redactions to be “narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”

The redactions, he added, were also “the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire affidavit.”

In its most complete form, the document would reveal important details about the government’s justification for taking the extraordinary step of searching Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8.

Releasing even partial sections of an affidavit is extremely rare. Such documents are practically never unsealed before government prosecutors file criminal charges in cases. Affidavits such as these usually include evidence gathered to justify a search warrant like information provided by witnesses. Reinhart signaled earlier this week he was inclined to agree to a severely redacted version for release even though the extensive deletions might make the document worthless in terms of what the public would eventually see. The eventual search warrant and property receipt have already been made public. Read the full report here. Trump has already had a meltdown on his Truth Social platform declaring “I DID NOTHING WRONG!” https://twitter.com/EbonyJHilton_MD/status/1562894494168924163 https://twitter.com/SoFlaNoTrump/status/1562927439570907136 https://twitter.com/ABCWorldNews/status/1562978132688154624