In article <t2qcrc$3q6q7$
1...@news.freedyn.de>
<
governo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The DOJ lied and the affidavit is bullshit. Somebody needs to pay
> dearly for this. Jail is not good enough.
>
The Justice Department said in court documents Monday that it
opposes the release of the FBI affidavit used to justify the
search warrant on former President Donald Trump's primary
residence at Mar-a-Lago.
In Monday's filing, prosecutors indicated that the affidavit
contained sensitive information regarding the testimony of
witnesses in the investigation, adding later they feared that
releasing the requested documents would "chill" the future
testimony of other potential witnesses.
While the Justice Department did not oppose the release of the
search warrant last week, the department argued Monday in a
court filing to the U.S. District Court in the Southern District
of Florida that the affidavit should remain sealed "to protect
the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that
implicates national security."
A judge will make the final decision about whether the affidavit
should be unsealed.
The search warrant was unsealed on Friday, and it revealed that
federal law enforcement officials are investigating the former
president for violations of laws governing the removal or
destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation, and a
provision of the Espionage Act related to gathering,
transmitting or losing defense information.
The documents unsealed Friday included a property receipt from
the Aug. 8 search stating that the FBI had seized 11 sets of
classified documents, including four sets that were marked "top
secret." The FBI also seized photos and information about the
president of France, among other things.
Several media outlets, including CBS News, filed requests with
the court last week to obtain access to all documents —
including any underlying affidavits — related to the search
warrant. The affidavit is likely to have key details about the
government's investigation into Trump.
But while the Justice Department has "carefully considered
whether the affidavit can be released subject to redactions," it
said in Monday's court filing that "the redactions necessary to
mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation would be so
extensive as to render the remaining unsealed text devoid of
meaningful content, and the release of such a redacted version
would not serve any public interest."
"Nevertheless, should the Court order partial unsealing of the
affidavit, the government respectfully requests an opportunity
to provide the Court with proposed redactions," the Justice
Department continued.
The Justice Department said it would be permissible to to unseal
other papers connected to the search warrant, the government's
motion to seal the search warrant and cover sheets associated
with the search warrant.
In January, officials from the National Archives retrieved 15
boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago, some of which
contained classified information. In July, a lawyer for Trump
certified to investigators that all classified material had been
handed over to the National Archives.
Trump claimed last week that he had declassified all the
material seized at Mar-a-Lago while he was still in office.
While a sitting president does have broad declassification
ability, Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House intelligence
committee, said on "Face the Nation" on Sunday that he has seen
no evidence Trump declassified the material while in office.
Further, Schiff said that the authority to declassify material
does not extend to a former president, and he called it "absurd"
for Trump to claim "18 months after the fact" that he had
retroactively declassified the documents he took to Mar-a-Lago.
Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton told CBS
News' Robert Costa that Trump's handling of classified documents
"worried" him.
According to Bolton, intelligence briefers would bring pictures
or graphs for the president to see and hand them to him.
"Often, the president would say, 'Well, can I keep this?' And in
my experience, the intelligence briefers most often would say,
'Well sir, we'd prefer to take that back,'" Bolton said. "But
sometimes they forgot."
Earlier this year, the National Archives asked the Justice
Department to investigate Trump's handling of records. The
National Archives also said then that some of the documents
Trump turned over to them had been ripped up and taped back
together.
Trump's allies on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday sent
letters to top officials in the Biden administration demanding
they send to Congress documents and communications about the FBI
search of Trump's residence.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-warrant-affidavit-justice-
department-oppose-unsealing-court-filing-today-2022-08-15/