A search warrant released last week after the unprecedented search showed that Trump had 11 sets of classified documents in his home and that the Justice Department had probable cause to conduct the search based on possible violations of the Espionage Act. read more Republicans are seeking the release of more detailed information that convinced a federal judge to issue the search warrant, which may show sources of information and details about the nature of the documents and other classified information. Unsealing such affidavits is highly unusual and would require approval from a federal judge. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “I think the release of the affidavit would help, at least it would confirm that there was justification for this raid,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounce said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The Justice Department is going to have to “show that this wasn’t just a fishing spree, that they had reason to go in and do this, that they exhausted all other means,” Rounds said. “And if they can’t do that this. , then we have a serious problem on our hands.” Representative Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday that the Biden administration should provide more details about what led to the investigation. “Congress is saying, ‘Show us. Do we want to know what the FBI told them? What did they find?” Turner said. The Justice Department responded to a request for comment on the FBI affidavit.
ENHANCED THREATS
The calls from Republicans came amid reports that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned of increased threats to law enforcement coming from social media platforms after the Mar-a-Lago investigation. The FBI said in a statement that it is always concerned about threats against law enforcement and works with other agencies to assess and respond to such threats, “which are reprehensible and dangerous.” Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent and Pennsylvania prosecutor, said he was concerned about the safety of federal law enforcement officers amid such threats, adding that “everyone should be asking for calm.” He told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the search of Trump’s home “was an unprecedented action that must be supported by an unprecedented justification” and the probable cause affidavit would show whether that standard was met — even if it only appeared . to lawmakers in a classified briefing. “I have encouraged all my colleagues on the left and the right to reserve judgment and not get ahead of themselves because we don’t know what this document contains. It will answer a lot of questions.”
DAMAGE ESTIMATES
Democrats on Sunday did not echo calls to release the affidavit. Instead, Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said he was seeking an assessment of the potential damage to US national security from Trump’s possession of the classified documents, along with an intelligence briefing. . The “Top Secret” documents and “Sensitive Departmental Information” could cause “extremely serious damage to national security” if disclosed, Schiff told CBS. “So the fact that they were in an unsecured place being kept with nothing more than a padlock or whatever security they had in a hotel is deeply troubling,” Schiff said. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NBC that she could not judge whether the Justice Department should indict Trump on criminal charges. “That will be up to the Department of Justice to decide what happened here, why it happened and whether it rises to the level of a crime,” Klobuchar said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by David Lawder. Additional reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Heather Timmons and Lisa Shumaker Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
