The Lead: The Redacted Affidavit
credit: nj monitor
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice released the affidavit used to get the search warrant (which has also been released) for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in West Palm Beach, FL.
How We Got Here
The August search of Trump’s home prompted storms of outrage, which led to the release of the search warrant. Happy now? the DOJ asked. Nope. The outrage wanted the affidavit.
The DOJ argued that the affidavit would hurt their investigation and that it would have to be redacted to the point of useless to keep people safe, but a federal judge disagreed. So the 32-page affidavit was released with (as the DOJ warned) almost 21 pages completely or mostly redacted.
The Affidavit
“The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records,” the affidavit reads. “Based upon this investigation, I do not believe that any spaces within the PREMISES have been authorized for the storage of classified information at least since the end of FPOTUS’s Presidential Administration on January 20, 2021.”
The affidavit says that the National Archives sent a referral to the DOJ after the Archives received 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago in January that contained pretty secret documents. According to CNBC, “The 15 boxes included 184 specific documents marked classified, 67 of which were marked ‘confidential,’ 92 marked ‘secret,’ and 25 documents marked ‘top secret.’”
A DOJ investigation then followed, including some subpoenas that it seems like the Trump camp may have only partially responded to. This then led to the August search of Trump’s home. The investigation is still ongoing, and the New York Times reports that the Justice Department recently subpoenaed more Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage.
We’ll see how that goes.
|