Major media outlets and Judicial Watch asked the court to order the DOJ to release the affidavit used to get a search warrant against President Trump. The judge, Bruce Reinhart ruled that the DOJ must turn it over, but they will be allowed to make redactions before they do. They will undoubtedly remove everything that matters. The judge will give them until next Thursday to send the redacted version to him for approval.
If he does not approve, he will meet with the DOJ in private. This judge is hardly unbiased and I would be willing to bet there are so many redactions no one will have a clue what the reason for the raid was.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement in response the Biden Justice Department’s opposition to Judicial Watch’s Motion to Unseal:
It seems like the Biden Justice Department is telling the court what to do. Respectfully, the court should make its own independent assessment of the compelling public interest in transparency about this abusive raid. The ‘criminal investigation’ the Biden administration is covering up reeks of corruption and dishonesty – and is based on a reinvention of law about presidential records that is at odds with the U.S. Constitution, court rulings, federal statutes, and prior government legal positions and practice. No administration should be able to raid the home of a former president and putative presidential candidate based on ‘secret’ reasons.
NBC News reported:
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to unseal at least some of the probable cause affidavit used to secure a search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
“On my initial careful review … there are portions of it that can be unsealed,” Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said after a hearing where a top government lawyer contended the document’s release could jeopardize an investigation that is still in its “early stages.”
Reinhart said he would “give the government a full and fair opportunity” to make redactions to the document, and ordered them to turn in the redacted version by next Thursday. He said he would then review the document and either order its release if he agrees with the redaction or hold a closed-door hearing with the government if he disagrees.
