The recent search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate by the FBI has caused a lot of controversy over the public’s right to know what is going on.
Some people, including lawmakers, are demanding justification for the FBI and Justice Department’s actions. Others just want to know the facts about what was found in the search.
Trump criticized the search on social media and said it was a political move.
Many disagree and see the possibility of criminal activity.
The heavily redacted document was released and blackened out in order to, according to the Justice Department and the FBI, protect witnesses and the integrity of the investigation.The affidavit, published on line by multiple news sources, includes several pages and evidence, including supporting documents, justifying the Justice Department’s intention to recover materials that were taken from the White House when the former president left office.
According to the redacted version of the affidavit, the Justice Department had previously retrieved highly classified documents concerning national security, and requested an additional search of Mar-a-Lago because of the danger of compromising intelligence officials. Initially, 15 boxes of documents were turned over to the National Archives by Trump, when demanded to do so.
The Justice Department was against the idea of releasing information about the search affidavit, because they feel it will interfere with their investigation.
In a big surprise, the Justice Department was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Thursday to make the search affidavit public by Friday, although it would be heavily redacted to exclude classified information that would be harmful to the investigation.
In response, on Friday the Justice Department released a blacked out version of the document that explained the justification for the search of Trump’s home and club in Florida, where FBI agents seized several boxes of classified documents.
The affidavit is the document that the FBI had to submit to a judge in order to get a warrant to search the property. Affidavits typically provide information that can convince the judge that illegal activity has occurred. Usually affidavits are not released to the public, but in this case, due to the public and lawmaker pressure, the judge made the decision to reveal parts of the document.
The FBI already informed the public that 11 sets of classified documents were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago during the search. Three laws allegedly have been broken by Trump and possibly his administration – including one related to the Espionage Act, which involves gathering, transmitting or losing defense or security information illegally. There are also suspicions that the president destroyed classified documents or hid them. And, of course, there is the possibility of falsification of classified information, that the FBI is concerned about.
More than 700 pages, in 100 documents which were marked “classified” were removed during the search.