Judge Officially Rejects DOJ’s Plea to Keep Trump Affidavit Sealed, Citing ‘Intense Public and Historical Interest’

The legal controversy over the documents connected to the FBI raid at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home is ongoing. But a judge has announced that “intense public and historical interest” in the FBI affidavit that backed the warrant to search Trump’s home justifies unsealing parts of the affidavit.

Previously, the Department of Justice told the federal judge that releasing the affidavit would jeopardize an ongoing investigation, The Hill reported.

However, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in Florida issued a written order on Monday that affirmed his findings from a hearing last week that the DOJ had not made a sufficient case to keep the affidavit totally sealed, Bloomberg reported.

Reinhart was the judge who initially approved the search warrant for Trump’s home, but he rejected the DOJ’s arguments to keep the affidavit sealed entirely.

Specifically, he rejected the argument that the process of proposing redactions to the affidavit prior to releasing it would take too much time, Bloomberg reported.

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“Particularly given the intense public and historical interest in an unprecedented search of a former President’s residence, the Government has not yet shown that these administrative concerns are sufficient to justify sealing,” the judge wrote in his decision.

“I therefore reject the Government’s argument that the present record justifies keeping the entire Affidavit under seal. In its Response, the Government asked that I give it an opportunity to propose redactions if I declined to seal the entire Affidavit. I granted that request and gave the Government a deadline of noon on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022,” Reinhart added.

While Reinhart’s decision goes against the DOJ’s requests to keep the document sealed, this move favors the request from several media companies to unseal the affidavit.

CNN, the Washington Post, NBC News and Scripps filed a request for documents connected to the FBI’s search at Trump’s home to be unsealed, CNN reported.

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The media outlets asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida…


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