FBI executed search warrant at Mar-a-Lago

Runs For Fun said:
Oh shi-
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1560061682063331328/
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They subpoenaed all the documents that NARA provided to the Jan 6th committee. It looks like the timing and structure of the subpoena is such that it was designed to avoid needing to ask Biden to waive executive privilege on the documents (since he is the current executive). Doing this sooner could have been problematic, because the Justice Department doesn’t want to talk to Biden at all about the investigation, and asking about executive privilege would naturally have meant crossing that line.
 
Poll: Majority of Americans Approve of Search on Mar-a-Lago for Files Trump Took

Among all survey respondents, 57 percent of Americans say they disapprove of Trump taking nuclear weapons-related documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate. Those who voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election, however, were split on that question, with 35 percent saying they approved of him potentially taking such documents, and 36 percent saying they didn’t (19 percent were unsure how to feel about it).

The inability of a large segment of Trump voters to acknowledge that such actions could be seen as improper in spite of most voters overall condemning them perhaps explains why his favorability rating was relatively and statistically unchanged compared to a previous Economist/YouGov poll conducted last week.

According to the most recent poll, only 39 percent of voters have a favorable view of Trump, with 54 percent giving him an unfavorable rating. Last week, 40 percent said they viewed Trump favorably, with 56 percent giving him an unfavorable grade.
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Judge Orders Justice Dept. to Redact and Release Version of Affidavit Used to Search Trump’s Home​

The hearing emerged from an effort last week by a coalition of news organizations to unseal the affidavit submitted in support of the search warrant.​

Aug. 18, 2022, 2:20 p.m. ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the government to redact and ultimately release a version of the highly sensitive warrant affidavit that was used to justify a search by the F.B.I. last week of former President Donald J. Trump’s private home and club.

Ruling from the bench, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said that there were portions of the affidavit that “could be presumptively unsealed.”

“Whether those portions would be meaningful for the public or the media,” he added, was not for him to decide.
Judge Reinhart’s surprising decision struck a middle course between the Justice Department, which wanted to keep the affidavit entirely under wraps as its investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents continued, and a group of news organizations, which requested that it be released in full to the public.
Warrant affidavits — which are written and sworn to by federal agents before a search takes place — contain detailed information about criminal investigations and are almost always kept under seal until charges are filed.
As part of his ruling, Judge Reinhart ordered the government to send him under seal proposed redactions to the warrant affidavit by next Thursday at noon. He said he would review the suggestions and decide if he agreed with them.
“This is going to be a considered, careful process,” Judge Reinhart said.
Patricia Mazzei is the Miami bureau chief, covering Florida and Puerto Rico. She writes about breaking news, politics, disasters and the quirks of life in South Florida. She joined The Times in 2017 after a decade at The Miami Herald.
Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence. He joined The Times in 1999. @alanfeuer
 
mollyc said:

Judge Orders Justice Dept. to Redact and Release Version of Affidavit Used to Search Trump’s Home​

The hearing emerged from an effort last week by a coalition of news organizations to unseal the affidavit submitted in support of the search warrant.​

Aug. 18, 2022, 2:20 p.m. ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the government to redact and ultimately release a version of the highly sensitive warrant affidavit that was used to justify a search by the F.B.I. last week of former President Donald J. Trump’s private home and club.

Ruling from the bench, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said that there were portions of the affidavit that “could be presumptively unsealed.”

“Whether those portions would be meaningful for the public or the media,” he added, was not for him to decide.
Judge Reinhart’s surprising decision struck a middle course between the Justice Department, which wanted to keep the affidavit entirely under wraps as its investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents continued, and a group of news organizations, which requested that it be released in full to the public.
Warrant affidavits — which are written and sworn to by federal agents before a search takes place — contain detailed information about criminal investigations and are almost always kept under seal until charges are filed.
As part of his ruling, Judge Reinhart ordered the government to send him under seal proposed redactions to the warrant affidavit by next Thursday at noon. He said he would review the suggestions and decide if he agreed with them.
“This is going to be a considered, careful process,” Judge Reinhart said.
Patricia Mazzei is the Miami bureau chief, covering Florida and Puerto Rico. She writes about breaking news, politics, disasters and the quirks of life in South Florida. She joined The Times in 2017 after a decade at The Miami Herald.
Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence. He joined The Times in 1999. @alanfeuer
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Wow, sounds like a win for Trump here, even though it goes against precedent. Wonder if it was one of his judges. Will be interesting to see what comes of it.
 
The real question is, does this help or hurt the investigation? Trump and his cult were going to come up with a narrative no matter what. If it remained sealed, it would be “what are they hiding?”. If it was released in full, they’d claim “this is proof it’s much ado about nothing and this did not warrant searching Trump’s home”.

Since they’ll get a redacted version, they’ll probably argue both - the affidavit is a weak pretense for the search warrant, and we need to know the names of those that have been redacted and other parts that are being kept hidden.

There’s no way there’s anything that could make this cult go “Yeah, that’s pretty serious, guess we were wrong about our guy.”
 
Eric said:
Wow, sounds like a win for Trump here, even though it goes against precedent. Wonder if it was one of his judges. Will be interesting to see what comes of it.
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It’s not really a win for Trump. Some things:

1) Trump’s lawyer was there, but they actually took no position in court on whether to release the affidavit. This is because (2) even though trump claimed to want it released, he actually didn’t want it released. Trump-world figured there was propaganda value in claiming to want it released and they rightfully assumed there was no chance it would actually happen. (3) Nothing in the affidavit is going to help him. It’s going to make him look very bad. (4) Not much will be released. The redactions will leave out the names of witnesses, what the witnesses said (to the extent that knowing what the witnesses said would help Trump identify who the witnesses are), etc. It’s not going to be much.
 
Also: the judge didn’t order anything released. He said he was “inclined” to order (at some future date) at least some stuff released, and wanted to see redactions within a week. No order issued other than the requirement for the DoJ to produce a redacted version (which is actually something the DoJ proposed in its motion as an alternative).

The press got this a bit wrong, looks like.
 
And, finally: if an unsealed version of the affidavit DOES get released, it will likely happen pretty close to (and before) the mid-term elections. That is not something that Republicans actually want to happen.
 
Cmaier said:
It’s not really a win for Trump. Some things:

1) Trump’s lawyer was there, but they actually took no position in court on whether to release the affidavit. This is because (2) even though trump claimed to want it released, he actually didn’t want it released. Trump-world figured there was propaganda value in claiming to want it released and they rightfully assumed there was no chance it would actually happen. (3) Nothing in the affidavit is going to help him. It’s going to make him look very bad. (4) Not much will be released. The redactions will leave out the names of witnesses, what the witnesses said (to the extent that knowing what the witnesses said would help Trump identify who the witnesses are), etc. It’s not going to be much.
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Fair point, I suppose for Trump there's no winning as he's the target of this investigation. Republicans are looking for the leaks as targets though and they'll do everything possible to read between the lines, then you'll see their faces plastered all over Fox News. Hopefully, whatever they decide to release will at least keep their sources and any indications redacted.
 
Eric said:
Fair point, I suppose for Trump there's no winning as he's the target of this investigation. Republicans are looking for the leaks as targets though and they'll do everything possible to read between the lines, then you'll see their faces plastered all over Fox News. Hopefully, whatever they decide to release will at least keep their sources and any indications redacted.
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Of course, one way to mitigate against the problem of witnesses being identified and the investigatory roadmap being revealed is if the DoJ goes ahead and gets its indictment(s) before the document is released. They ordinarily would never do such a thing within 90 days of midterms, but if the court isn’t leaving them much choice here….
 
It's fun watching CNN seemingly appalled at this decision, even though they themselves have put in for a request to see it.
 
Eric said:
It's fun watching CNN seemingly appalled at this decision, even though they themselves have put in for a request to see it.
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It’s also not even a decision yet. TV reporters bad.
 
It seems like Trump continuing to run his mouth just makes things worse than the previous time he ran his mouth. And he runs his mouth a lot.

I don't want to claim 4D chess being played by his opponents just yet, but it sure seems like they have run through a lot of Trump World choose your own adventures in preparation for all this and the decisions and counters are coming swiftly. "Trump will probably do/say......so we should be ready to counter with....." They know his tactics well by this point, as do a lot of us. I think all he's got is stepping up the absurdity of his lies knowing his supporters will do zero fact-checking. Unfortunately for him the justice system seems to finally not give a fuck about his supporters.
 
NYTimes just issued a correction. “”He ordered a redaction but hasn’t decided to release it.”
 

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