Dept. of Justice Reveals More Details of Mar-a-Lago Warrant

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Facts

• On Wednesday, the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) released some previously-redacted parts of the warrant application it used to get permission to search former Pres. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last year.¹
• The decision followed an order earlier in the day from Judge Bruce Reinhart of the Southern District in Florida, who rejected a request from media outlets to unseal the entire affidavit but agreed to compel the DOJ to release more details.²
• The unredacted portions detailed how the FBI's 'probable cause' was a photograph of boxes of documents stacked in a storage unit, also explaining how investigators obtained footage from a security camera of the storage unit — including video of people leaving with boxes.³
• The saga began after Trump returned 15 boxes of government records to the National Archives in January 2022. However, the boxes contained classified documents, prompting prosecutors to subpoena Trump in May to return more boxes.⁴
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) subsequently searched Trump's home in August, turning up more than 100 classified documents he had yet to return.⁴
• Trump, who pleaded not guilty, was indicted on 37 counts in relation to the documents found in the 2022 search, including obstruction of justice, concealing documents, and making false statements — the first US president to face federal charges in history.⁵

Sources: ¹Associated Press, ²Al Jazeera, ³Business Insider, ⁴New York Times and ⁵Independent.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by AlterNet. For those doubting the legitimacy of the FBI Mar-a-Lago raid or the charges against Trump, these unredacted portions of the affidavit explain how much the former president was doing to move and hide these highly sensitive documents. And yet there are still so many redactions, there’s no telling what other evidence the DOJ has against Trump's crimes.
• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by New York Post. One can’t trust what the Biden DOJ put in an affidavit. The administration and Democrats are in the midst of a witch hunt against the leader for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination because they know they have little chance of beating him. The former president says he declassified the documents, so there’s no case against him.

Predictions