Justice Department proposes deletions for Mar-a-Lago search warrant

Get ready for a whole lot of blacked out text.

Justice Department attorneys are preparing to propose sweeping redactions to the secret document that justified the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month, attempting to comply with a court order that may result in making some portions of it public.

The proposed redactions — to an FBI affidavit that may wind up remaining entirely under wraps — are intended to shield investigators’ sources and methods for collecting evidence as part of their criminal probe into the “highly classified” documents discovered at Trump’s Palm Beach home.

At a hearing last week, Judge Bruce Reinhart signaled he was inclined to make portions of the affidavit public, even though such documents usually remain under seal until criminal charges are filed or an investigation is closed.

However, the judge said in a written order on Monday that he would not release details about sources and methods the government relied on in the affidavit. He also left open the possibility that he might decide that the appropriate redactions were so extensive that it would be pointless and unnecessary to release any version of the document now.

“I cannot say at this point that partial redactions will be so extensive that they will result in a meaningless disclosure, but I may ultimately reach that conclusion after hearing further from the Government,” Reinhart wrote.

It’s unclear what, if anything, the public will see Thursday. The proposed redactions are due to be filed under seal at noon, and there’s no guarantee any aspect of that filing will include a public-facing document. The timeline for Reinhart to review the proposed redactions or engage in further talks with the Justice Department is also undefined.

But the intense national interest surrounding the investigation has drawn unusual attention to incremental developments in the ongoing case, often fueled by the former president himself, who has mounted a campaign to discredit the investigation, even as it has presented an increasingly acute legal threat.

A wide array of news organizations, along with the conservative group Judicial Watch, petitioned the court to unseal the affidavit.

Trump has said publicly that he wants all documents related to the search released, but he has not formally joined in the unsealing effort. His lawyers did make a separate legal move Monday to seek an outside party to oversee review of the materials the FBI seized during the Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago. Another judge has asked Trump’s attorneys to provide more details on their request by Friday.

DOJ has previously said that if ordered by Reinhart, it would propose redactions so extensive that it would render the search affidavit meaningless to the public. However, the department is also under pressure to reveal more details about the basis for taking the unprecedented step of executing a search warrant at the home of a former president. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has acknowledged directly approving the search, has already recognized the unusual urgency of the matter, moving to unseal the search warrant itself, as well as two redacted receipts for property taken from Trump’s estate.

Adding to that pressure: Trump has used the vacuum of information to assail law enforcement and contend that the search was a politically motivated attack against a potential contender for the White House in 2024. He and his allies have ratcheted up heated rhetoric around the search. Trump himself on Thursday morning described the search “the greatest political attack in the history of the U.S.,” in a post on his social media site.

But the department has resisted making elements of the underlying affidavit public, warning it could scare off cooperative witnesses — particularly amid a rising tide of violent threats to law enforcement and others connected to the investigation — or reveal details about how the FBI collected evidence in the case.

Making the document public could also set a precedent that would bolster efforts to get such records in other high-profile, politically charged investigations. A Justice Department prosecutor told Reinhart that process would be a burden on the government to handle in a slew of cases, but the magistrate judge said in his order Monday that he wasn’t concerned at the moment with other cases.

“I do not need to reach the question of whether, in some other case, these concerns could justify denying public access; they very well might. Particularly given the intense public and historical interest in an unprecedented search of a former President’s residence, the Government has not yet shown that these administrative concerns are sufficient to justify sealing.”

Don’t expect a quick resolution. It’s unclear whether Reinhart’s ultimate ruling will be the final say on what, if anything, gets released. The Justice Department and any of the entities asking for public release of the affidavit could appeal his decision to a District Court judge and to the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Reinhart suggested at a hearing last week that he would not release anything until any potential appeals were resolved.