The affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home will be unsealed, and the Department of Justice must justify every redaction it seeks to make to the material, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ruled yesterday. While Thursday’s decision represents a victory for the media outlets seeking access to the documents, whether the public sees anything of substance in the short term remains to be seen.

Following the unprecedented raid on the former president and de facto leader of the Republican Party, the Department of Justice agreed to release the search warrant and the accompanying attachments that described the places to be searched and identified the items to be seized. The government also filed an unsealed, but redacted, copy of the property receipt list, and yesterday, with the government’s agreement, the court unsealed the criminal cover sheet, the government’s motion to seal the search warrant, and the court’s order sealing the warrant and related materials.

The Department of Justice, however, refused to unseal the search warrant affidavit used to obtain the search warrant, even as multiple media outlets argued in motions that they had a First Amendment right to access that material. Thursday afternoon, Reinhart heard oral argument on the consolidated motions and quickly made clear he believed some portions of the affidavit needed to be unsealed.

“On my initial careful review … there are portions of it that can be unsealed,” Reinhart told the attorneys. Then, following arguments, the court issued an order finding “that on the present record the Government has not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed.” The court further directed the government to file under seal, by Thursday, August 25, 2022, “its proposed redactions along with a legal memorandum setting forth the justification for the proposed redactions.” (Read more from “Trump Raid Judge’s Order Helps DOJ Drag Out Political Persecution of Its Biggest Foe” HERE)

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Former President Donald Trump has thanked the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for returning passports that he said they “stole” during last week’s raid of his home.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, the former president accused the FBI of stealing three of his passports while executing their search warrant, calling it “an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country.” Trump thanked the agency, while also accusing agents of behavior like that of “a common criminal,” as he announced that his documents had been returned in a post on Tuesday evening.

“The DOJ and FBI just returned my passports,” Trump wrote. “Thank you! Unfortunately, when they Raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, 8 days ago, they just opened their arms and grabbed everything in sight, much as a common criminal would do. This shouldn’t happen in America!”

Taylor Budowich, Trump’s director of communications, shared to Twitter on Monday a redacted email that appeared to confirm the passports had been taken by authorities during the raid. (Read more from “Trump Thanks FBI, DOJ After Passports They Stole Are Returned” HERE)

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The FBI search warrant authorizing a government raid of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence sought an exhaustive list of any White House records the president ever came in contact with, according to the document obtained by The Federalist.

Outlining the “property to be seized” by the more than 30 agents who rummaged through the former president’s Mar-a-Lago mansion, the warrant demanded confiscation of any document Trump ever saw, read, or created for the entirety of his four years as commander-in-chief.

“All physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation” of federal statutes governing records possession, the warrant reads, were to be seized. Records extended to “Any government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021.”

In other words, had Trump written something down on a napkin, federal officials were authorized to raid the former president’s home and capture it.

The affidavit allegedly asserting probable cause has not been made available to the public by the DOJ or the federal court that sealed it. The search warrant was signed on Aug. 5 and gave authorities two weeks to conduct the unprecedented raid. The federal magistrate who signed the warrant previously donated thousands to former President Barack Obama. Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose Supreme Court nomination was invalidated after Donald Trump became president in 2017, acknowledged that he personally signed off on the raid in a Thursday press conference. Garland also claimed the search was conducted with a narrow scope. (Read more from “FBI Raid Warrant Demanded Seizure of Literally Any Record Trump Ever Saw During 4-Year Presidential Term” HERE)

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