A redacted version of the affidavit used for the search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate will be made public on Friday.
It is likely to contain key information on the justification of the search by FBI special agents on August 8 and some of the evidence the government presented to the judge.
Judge Bruce Reinhart’s order came just hours after federal law enforcement filed the parts of the affidavit they want to keep secret as their investigation continues.
But the editorial offices or obscured portions proposed by the department are likely to be large, so it’s unclear how much new information will be revealed about the investigation.
On Monday, Judge Reinhart acknowledged that it was possible that the newsrooms were so extensive that they left the public version of the document without any significant information.
The Justice Department had opposed his release, including in drafted form, saying it risks compromising an ongoing criminal investigation and revealing information about witnesses.
Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the research was politically motivated, released statements on social media asking the court to disclose the unedited version.
What we know so far about research
Aerial view of the Mar-a-Lago estate. Image: AP
The search of the Florida estate was part of a federal investigation to see if Trump illegally removed the documents when he left office in January 2021, after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden.
Documents already made public as part of the investigation show that the FBI recovered 11 sets of confidential documents from the property, including information marked top secret.
They also showed that the FBI was investigating the “intentional retention of national defense information,” the concealment or removal of government documents, and the obstruction of a federal investigation.
The detailed three-page list of assets seized during the search
Under the law, presidential documents are not owned by the president and should be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the US government agency that maintains historical and government records.
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Trump himself announced the search in a statement, claiming that agents broke into his safe and claimed it represented “dark times for our nation”.
He tried to defend his actions, claiming without providing evidence that he had a standing order to declassify the documents in question. However, none of the three laws cited by the Justice Department in the search warrant require the documents to have actually been classified.
The former president’s lawyers did it asked a federal judge to stop the FBI from continuing the review documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
He suggested he could run for the White House again in 2024 but made no commitment.
