![]() And the documents released so far have made clear that Trump and others around him face potential legal exposure, including for possible obstruction of justice.īut the specific language on “willful retention” could point to the role of the former President, who would have been authorized to possess national defense documents while in office but not once he decamped to his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Previously, the search warrant documents only listed the federal statutes, including the broad law known as the Espionage Act. Unsealed document sharpens focus on Trump as possible subject of criminal probeĪ document unsealed Thursday, which offered specifics about the crimes the Justice Department is investigating, including “willful retention of national defense information,” sharpens the focus on the former President as a possible subject of the criminal probe, several legal experts told CNN. Reinhart said he then may have additional confidential discussions with the Justice Department before making his decisions on transparency. Those proposals will be due noon ET on August 25. Prosecutors will have the opportunity to propose redactions and explain why each piece of information needs to be kept from the public eye, Reinhart said. “I’m not prepared to find that the affidavit should be fully sealed” based on the record he has now, Reinhart said, adding that there are “portions” which could be unsealed. Reinhart said he wasn’t convinced yet that the entire affidavit should remain undisclosed to the public. The judge plans to hear more from the Justice Department by next Thursday about how extensively investigators want to keep confidential the document that describes their investigative steps and methods leading to the need for the search. Reinhart set in motion on Thursday the possible public release of a heavily redacted version of the affidavit for the search at Mar-a-Lago. Judge lays out process for potentially releasing parts of affidavit His announcement came after the Justice Department, while arguing against the disclosure of the documents, revealed new, if not extremely vague, details about the investigation into the handling of classified documents from the Trump White House. Judge Bruce Reinhart said during a hearing at the West Palm Beach courthouse that he was planning to unseal portions of the affidavit, which is sought by various media outlets and other organizations. A US magistrate judge started the process of potentially releasing some information from the affidavit that the Justice Department used to obtain a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
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