The FBI had probable cause to believe files containing classified national defense information would be found at the Palm Beach, Florida, residence, according to an agent who wrote the 32-page affidavit. “There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found” at Trump’s home, an unredacted portion of the affidavit read. A federal judge had ordered the release of the key document over the objections of the Justice Department, which argued it contained highly sensitive information about the ongoing criminal investigation into Trump. US Judge Bruce Reinhart accepted the DOJ’s proposed amendments to the affidavit a day before it was made public. Click here or scroll down to read the heavily edited affidavit. “The government is conducting a criminal investigation into the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized locations, and the illegal concealment and removal of government records,” the FBI agent, whose name was withheld, wrote in the first line of the affidavit. . The agent then wrote that the investigation was prompted by a referral from the National Archives Administration in February after NARA received 15 boxes of records from Trump’s Florida residence. The FBI found that those boxes contained classified documents and included files related to national defense information, which had been stored at Mar-a-Lago in an unsecured location. The 15 boxes contained 184 specific documents marked classified, 67 of which were marked “confidential,” 92 marked “secret” and 25 documents marked “top secret,” according to the affidavit. “Based on this investigation, I do not believe there have been any approved spaces within the STATES for the storage of classified information since at least the end of FPOTUS’ Presidential Administration on January 20, 2021,” the agent wrote in the affidavit. Of the 32 pages of the affidavit, 21 pages are almost completely or significantly blacked out. The search warrant itself was voluntarily disclosed by the DOJ less than a week after the August 8 raid. The warrant said FBI agents were looking for materials that showed violations of laws against obstruction of justice and removal of official records, as well as the US Espionage Act. The FBI took at least 20 boxes of items in the August raid, including several sets of highly classified documents, according to a proof of ownership also released by the Justice Department. In a social media post after the redacted affidavit was released, Trump accused the FBI and Justice Department of a “public relations stunt” because the word “Nuclear” did not appear in the document — though he also noted that it was ” heavily redacted !!!” The affidavit does not detail the specific contents of the documents he expected to find. Trump also criticized Reinhart, arguing that he should have recused himself from the matter because he had previously recused himself from another case involving Trump. The reason for that exemption was not clear, the news outlets reported, but Trump claimed it was “based on his animosity and hatred of your beloved President, me.” The government argued last week against releasing the affidavit, even in redacted form. “The corrections necessary to mitigate the damage to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive that the remaining unsealed text would be devoid of substance,” said a court filing by Jay Bratt, chief of the DOJ’s National Counterintelligence and Export Control Division. Security Directorate. Bratt also argued that the affidavit “would serve as a road map for the government’s ongoing investigation” if disclosed. Rinehart disagreed and ordered the government to propose corrections to the U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida, by Thursday. The judge accepted the DOJ’s submissions later that day. The government said last week that the Mar-a-Lago raid was part of an investigation that “involves national security” and was still in the “early stages”. Trump, who first disclosed the FBI’s investigation into his Florida residence, has been branded the victim of a political attack by the Biden administration, which has been waged against the presumptive Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential race. The former president sued the administration on Monday, asking a federal judge to block the Justice Department from reviewing documents seized from Mar-a-Lago until a court-appointed third party reviews them. “Political Hacks and Thugs had no right under the Presidential Records Act to break into Mar-a-Lago and steal everything, including passports and privileged documents,” Trump said in a social media post earlier in the morning of Friday. Read the redacted affidavit: This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
