The administration’s opposition came in response to court filings by several news organizations, including the Associated Press, seeking to unseal the underlying affidavit the Justice Department filed when it sought a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property earlier this year. month. The court filing — by Juan Antonio Gonzalez, the U.S. attorney in Miami, and Jay Bratt, the Justice Department’s top national security official — argues that releasing the affidavit would “cause significant and irreparable harm to this ongoing criminal investigation ». The document, prosecutors say, details “highly sensitive witness information,” including people interviewed by the government, and contains confidential grand jury information. The government told a federal judge that prosecutors believe some additional records, including the warrant cover and the government’s request to seal the documents, should now be released. WATCHES | FBI search warrant reveals new details of Trump probe:
Trump is under investigation for violations of the Espionage Act, FBI search warrant reveals
A US federal judge has unsealed the search warrant used at former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The Justice Department released a short list of what FBI agents seized, which included 20 boxes of papers that could violate US espionage laws. A proof of ownership unsealed Friday showed the FBI seized 11 sets of classified documents, some containing not only top secret but also “sensitive information,” a special category that protects the nation’s most important secrets that, if revealed publicly, could cause “extremely serious” damage to US interests. Court records did not provide specific details about what information the documents may contain. The Justice Department acknowledged Monday that its ongoing criminal investigation “includes highly classified material.” The search warrant, also unsealed Friday, said federal agents were investigating possible violations of three different federal laws, including one governing the collection, transmission or loss of defense information under the Espionage Act. The other statutes address the concealment, mutilation, or removal of records and the destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The scope of the investigation is unclear
The Mar-a-Lago search warrant, executed last Monday, was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into classified White House files recovered from Trump’s home earlier this year. The National Archives had asked the department to investigate after it said 15 boxes of records recovered from the estate contained classified records. A view of a proof of ownership for items seized during the execution of a search warrant by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago on August 8. (Jon Elswick/The Associated Press) It remains unclear whether the Justice Department moved forward with the warrant simply as a means to retrieve the records or as part of a broader criminal investigation or effort to prosecute the former president. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified information, with criminal and civil penalties, as well as presidential records. But the Justice Department, in its filing Monday, argued that its investigation is active and ongoing, and that releasing additional information could not only jeopardize the investigation, but also subject witnesses to threats or deter others. from cooperating with prosecutors. “If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a road map for the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a way that is highly likely to jeopardize future investigative steps,” she wrote. government in court.
