Judge plans to unseal parts of Mar-a-Lago search affidavit

A federal judge said on Thursday that he plans to unseal parts of the affidavit that led to a search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home to recover top secret documents earlier this month.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart gave prosecutors until Aug. 25 to propose redactions to the affidavit, suggesting that he would release an edited version of the document then.

“On my initial careful review … there are portions of it that can be unsealed,” Reinhart said from his courtroom located at the Paul G. Rogers Federal Courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The judge said he would give prosecutors a chance to explain proposed redactions in a closed-door hearing if there is a disagreement about the redactions.

“This is going to be a considered, careful process,” Reinhart said.

[ Trump says FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, blasts move as ‘not necessary or appropriate’ ]

In addition to ordering the redactions, the judge agreed to make public other documents, including the warrant’s cover sheet, the Justice Department’s motion to seal the documents and the judge’s order requiring them to be sealed.

Jay Bratt, a top Justice Department national security prosecutor, had argued that the affidavit should remain hidden from the public. Unsealing it, he said, would provide a “road map” of the investigation in its “early stages” and expose the next steps to be taken by federal agents and prosecutors.

“This is a volatile situation with respect to this particular search across the political spectrum,” Bratt said, adding with “one side in particular.”

“There is heightened interest,” he conceded. “This is likely an unprecedented situation.”

As the hearing kicked off, a small caravan of vehicles with “Trump 2024″ flags drove past the federal courthouse. An attorney for Trump, Christina Bobb, was in the courthouse but said she was only there to observe the court proceeding.

The media companies, including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and U.S. television networks, argued that the affidavit’s release would help the public determine if the Justice Department had legitimate reasons for the search or if it was part of a Biden administration vendetta against Trump, as the former president and his backers contend.

“The time for everybody to get it right is now,” Charles Tobin, a lawyer for the media, told Reinhart.

A Trump spokesman said that the affidavit should be redacted, but no legal paperwork or amicus brief has yet to be filed in support of the media’s request.

FBI agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8, removing 11 sets of classified documents, with some marked not only top secret but also “sensitive compartmented information,” according to a receipt of what was taken.

[ Don Jr. has major meltdown over Mar-a-Lago search ]

Some of the documents were marked not only top secret but also “sensitive compartmented information.” That is a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets that if revealed publicly could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to the U.S.

Trump says he declassified all the documents while he was in office, using a “standing rule” that any documents he took to Mar-a-Lago were considered declassified.

CNN reported that 18 former senior Trump officials derided that claim as “ludicrous” and worse.

With News Wire Services