US Justice Dept releases redacted search affidavit for Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago

The US Justice Department on Friday released a partially blacked-out document explaining the justification for an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate earlier this month, when agents removed top secret government records and other classified documents.

The document, even in its redacted form, is likely to offer at least some new details about an ongoing criminal investigation that has brought fresh legal peril for Trump just as he lays the groundwork for another presidential run.

Though Justice Department officials were expected to have removed sensitive details about witnesses, and the scope and direction of the investigation, the affidavit may offer the fullest description yet about the events leading up to the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.

The document being released is the redacted form of an affidavit, or sworn statement, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) submitted to a judge so it could obtain a warrant to search Trump’s property.

Affidavits typically contain vital information about an investigation, with agents spelling out to a judge the justification for why they want to search a particular property and why they believe they are likely to find evidence of a potential crime there. But affidavits routinely remain sealed during pending investigations, making the judge’s decision to reveal portions of it all the more striking.

In an acknowledgement of the extraordinary public interest in the investigation, US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Thursday ordered the department by Friday to make public a redacted version of the affidavit.

The directive came hours after federal law enforcement officials submitted under seal the portions of the affidavit that they want to keep secret as their investigation moves forward.