A legal brief explaining the proposed redactions to the affidavit was also released Friday, revealing that officials were primarily concerned about protecting the identities of “a number of civilian witnesses."
The Justice Department has released a redacted search warrant affidavit that prompted the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this month.
Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant Affidavit
The FBI argued in federal court that there was “probable cause to believe” that classified national defense information was stored at the Palm Beach property in an “unauthorized location,” according to the 38-page affidavit. They also alleged there was "probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found,"
Federal officials opened up the criminal investigation after the National Archives and Records Administration sent a referral to the Justice Department about receiving 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago that contained “highly classified documents intermingled with other records,” the affidavit said.
The Justice Department said there were "184 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as confidential, 92 documents marked as secret, and 25 documents marked as top secret.”
A legal brief explaining the proposed redactions to the affidavit was also released Friday, revealing that officials were primarily concerned about protecting the identities of “a number of civilian witnesses” and “the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”
Notice of Filing Redacted Memorandum
The Justice Department initially tried to block the release of the 38-page affidavit, but instead proposed redactions to U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who ordered its release.
"I did nothing wrong. It's a disgrace to our country. Our country's a wreck," Trump said on a radio show.
