Treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans are still screaming six years later about Hillary Clinton's emails. But lets compare and contrast.

Did Hilary keep classified documents on her desk where anyone could see them ? No.

Did Hillary shove both unclassified and classified documents into a box at the end of the day and then pack the boxes of classified material around with her? No.

Did Hillary pack classified documents including some of our most closely guarded secrets up to her residence where no one knew what happened to them after that? No.

Did Hillary constantly reveal top secret intelligence to the Russians and the world on twitter? No.

Did Hillary have a habit of tearing up classified documents and throwing the pieces of them ofn the floor or a wastepaper basket where anyone could see them and staff had to sort through them and tape them back together? No.

Did Hillary take top secret documents some marked TS?SCI and put them in her basement? No.

Trump did all those things which is why there is no possible comparison between how Hillary Clinton handled classified material compared to Trump's mishandling of classified material.


Mar-a-Lago security was 'hit and miss' while Trump kept boxes of sensitive documents: NYT reporter

Tom Boggioni
August 21, 2022



Donald and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago (Photo by Don Emmert for AFP)


Appearing with MSNBC host Alex Witt on Sunday, the New York Times Peter Baker pointed out that security at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort was, at best, "hit and miss" when he visited at the time when the former president was still illegally hanging onto boxes loaded with sensitive government documents.

Host Witt asked him about the Florida resort and his trips there and what he saw while he was researching his book on the Trump presidency.

"Can you give us any sense of how secure the place is? Where there are a lot of people around, evidence of security standing around?" the MSNBC host asked. "Are there any areas that aren't easily accessible, which you feel would be blocked off from the average club member?"

"It's an interesting place, of course," Baker recalled. "This is not just a former president's estate, this is an active club and hotel basically for his paying guests."

"When he was there we did interviews with him after he left office at Mar-a-Lago and the security was sort of hit-or-miss," he continued. "One time we were screened and one time we weren't and I think it kind of depends on the day. The Secret Service still protects him as they do all former presidents but they are not concerned so much with the property and things on the property as they are with him -- with the former president himself and his family."

"They are not responsible for guarding documents, let's say, and keeping club members from wandering into places that they might not necessarily be supposed to go," he continued. "It's a big place, I don't know where exactly he kept these documents they said are supposed to be in a safe with a double lock the authorities told them they did not think it was secure enough. But it is an active place with lots of people coming and going who do not get screened in a criminal background kind of way."

"We saw during the presidency," he recalled. "A woman showed up there, I think, with surveillance equipment, and did not have any kind of permission to be there, managed to get on the property anyway. I think there has always been concerns for security authorities as to how tightly and secure that place is."

Watch below:



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mar-a-lago-2657893591/

 

What a poorly structured and amateurish effort to control the discussion.
Cmon, stumbler, you're better than this.

What happened to "witheld documents and lied about it"?

 

I fully support the efforts of law enforcement agencies like the FBI to uphold the law of the land.
Not heroes but job well done.

 

Trump hired cronies to search top-secret docs he believed would erase 'stain' of his impeachment: former NYT reporter

Tom Boggioni
August 22, 2022



Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago (Photo by Nicholas Kamm for AFP)


Appearing on CNN's "New Day" on Monday morning, former New York Times national security expert Tim Weiner claimed that former President Donald Trump rounded up the boxes of sensitive government documents to take to Mar-a-Lago in the belief that he would find a "smoking gun" in them proving members of the "deep state" were plotting against him.

Speaking with host John Berman, Weiner expanded upon an op-ed in the Times where he wrote, "The Mar-a-Lago papers may well determine if Mr. Trump has a political future. That depends, in part, on the solution to several mysteries. What is in those files? Where did they come from? Whose fingerprints are on them? And who shows up on the surveillance tapes subpoenaed from the Trump mansion, which will show who went in and out of the rooms where they were hidden?"

"I think in the last chaotic days of the Trump administration, Donald Trump was desperate for documents that he thought would somehow absolve him of the offenses for which he was impeached and criminally investigated," Weiner told the host. "I think that he believes that there is some smoking gun in the classified archives of the government that will somehow cleanse him and allow him to run again, that will provide him with political leverage."

RELATED: Mar-a-Lago security was 'hit and miss' while Trump kept boxes of sensitive documents: NYT reporter

"Whether these documents are, in fact, helpful to the president or not is immaterial! He has no right to have them, they are the property of the American people, not a twice-impeached former president," he added.

"You talk about what he did prior to leaving office and who he put in certain places. Why is that important here?" host Berman pressed.

"That's right," the journalist replied. "In the last year of his administration, President Trump put unqualified loyalists at the top of the intelligence community and the Pentagon, and he wanted them to rifle through the classified files in search of documents, which he believed would somehow cleanse him of the stain of his impeachments and of the counterintelligence investigation, the FBI launched six full years ago against Donald Trump and his inner circle."

"These documents may or may not be what he was looking for," he added. "In other words, he wanted his own set of secret files that he thought would be political ammunition and I believe that's what's in those boxes."

Watch the video below or at this link.





https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2657896158/

 

I agree with this. We have no idea how many times the Gang of Eight meets for classified briefings. They include both the majority leaders in the House and Senate along with the minority leaders, and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. They meet to be informed of national security threats. And I agree they should be brought into the loop to be informed of the classified documents Trump took to Mar a Lago and what national security threats that might entail. They are our representatives and need to be informed about what is going on. And while there is always a chance someone might leak information the Gang of Eight has always been pretty good about respecting confidentiality and classified information.


Congressional leaders responsible for examining top-secret intel ask Biden for access to Trump Mar-a-Lago docs

Brad Reed
August 22, 2022



(Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)


The so-called "Gang of Eight" congressional leaders who have access to some of America's top intelligence secrets are asking the Biden administration to show them what documents former President Donald Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago.

Politico reports that the bipartisan group of lawmakers -- which includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), as well as the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees -- wants more insight into what documents were seized from Trump's property earlier this month.

"Privately, Capitol Hill aides have expressed frustration about the fact that Congress has learned little about the investigation into the former president, especially since it reportedly involves matters of national security," reports Politico. "The executive branch has historically resisted congressional inquiries about ongoing law-enforcement actions, arguing that it could compromise the investigation."

A search warrant and inventory from the Mar-a-Lago search revealed that the United States Department of Justice found probable cause to believe that evidence of crime existed at Mar-a-Lago, including potential violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice.

IN OTHER NEWS: Colorado GOP lawmaker switches parties — and cites Trump's election lies as a primary reason

Additionally, the inventory revealed that FBI agents found multiple sets of classified information at the former president's home, including some information that was granted the designation of top secret.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-documents-mar-a-lago/

 

Trump Had More Than 300 Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago
The National Archives found more than 150 sensitive documents when it got a first batch of material from the former president in January, helping to explain the Justice Department’s urgent response.


By Maggie Haberman, Jodi Kantor, Adam Goldman and Ben Protess

Aug. 22, 2022Updated 8:22 p.m. ET
The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.

In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Mr. Trump since he left office, the people said: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Mr. Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month.

The previously unreported volume of the sensitive material found in the former president’s possession in January helps explain why the Justice Department moved so urgently to hunt down any further classified materials he might have.




And the extent to which such a large number of highly sensitive documents remained at Mar-a-Lago for months, even as the department sought the return of all material that should have been left in government custody when Mr. Trump left office, suggested to officials that the former president or his aides had been cavalier in handling it, not fully forthcoming with investigators, or both.


The specific nature of the sensitive material that Mr. Trump took from the White House remains unclear. But the 15 boxes Mr. Trump turned over to the archives in January, nearly a year after he left office, included documents from the C.I.A., the National Security Agency and the F.B.I. spanning a variety of topics of national security interest, a person briefed on the matter said.




Mr. Trump went through the boxes himself in late 2021, according to multiple people briefed on his efforts, before turning them over.



The highly sensitive nature of some of the material in the boxes prompted archives officials to refer the matter to the Justice Department, which within months had convened a grand jury investigation.

Aides to Mr. Trump turned over a few dozen additional sensitive documents during a visit to Mar-a-Lago by Justice Department officials in early June. At the conclusion of the search this month, officials left with 26 boxes, including 11 sets of material marked as classified, comprising scores of additional documents. One set had the highest level of classification, top secret/sensitive compartmented information.



The Justice Department investigation is continuing, suggesting that officials are not certain whether they have recovered all the presidential records that Mr. Trump took with him from the White House.


Even after the extraordinary decision by the F.B.I. to execute a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, investigators have sought additional surveillance footage from the club, people familiar with the matter said.

It was the second such demand for the club’s security tapes, said the people familiar with the matter, and underscored that authorities are still scrutinizing how the classified documents were handled by Mr. Trump and his staff before the search.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.

Mr. Trump’s allies insist that the president had a “standing order” to declassify material that left the Oval Office for the White House residence, and have claimed that the General Services Administration, not Mr. Trump’s staff, packed the boxes with the documents.

No documentation has come to light confirming that Mr. Trump declassified the material, and the potential crimes cited by the Justice Department in seeking the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago would not hinge on the classification status of the documents.

National Archives officials spent much of 2021 trying to get back material from Mr. Trump, after learning that roughly two dozen boxes of presidential records material had been lingering in the White House residence for several months. Under the Presidential Records Act, all official material remains government property and has to be provided to the archives at the end of a president’s term.




Among the items they knew were missing were Mr. Trump’s original letters from the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and the note that President Barack Obama had left Mr. Trump before he left office.


Two former White House officials, who had been designated as among Mr. Trump’s representatives with the archives, received calls and tried to facilitate the documents’ return.

Mr. Trump resisted those calls, describing the boxes of documents as “mine,” according to three advisers familiar with his comments.



Soon after beginning their investigation early this year, Justice Department officials came to believe there were additional classified documents that they needed to collect. In May, after conducting a series of witness interviews, the department issued a subpoena for the return of remaining classified material, according to people familiar with the episode.

On June 3, Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterespionage section of the national security division of the Justice Department, went to Mar-a-Lago to meet with two of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb, and retrieve any remaining classified material to satisfy the subpoena. Mr. Corcoran went through the boxes himself to identify classified material beforehand, according to two people familiar with his efforts.

Mr. Corcoran showed Mr. Bratt the basement storage room where, he said, the remaining material had been kept.




Mr. Trump briefly came to see the investigators during the visit.

Mr. Bratt and the agents who joined him were given a sheaf of classified material, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Corcoran then drafted a statement, which Ms. Bobb, who is said to be the custodian of the documents, signed. It asserted that, to the best of her knowledge, all classified material that was there had been returned, according to two people familiar with the statement.


Mr. Corcoran did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Ms. Bobb did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Soon after that visit, investigators, who were interviewing several people in Mr. Trump’s circle about the documents, came to believe that there were other presidential records that had not been turned over, according to the people familiar with the matter.

On June 22, the Justice Department subpoenaed the Trump Organization for Mar-a-Lago’s security footage, which included a well-trafficked hallway outside the storage area, the people said.

The club had surveillance footage going back 60 days for some areas of the property, stretching back to late April of this year.

While much of the footage showed hours of club employees walking through the busy corridor, some of it raised concerns for investigators, according to people familiar with the matter. It revealed people moving boxes in and out, and in some cases, appearing to change the containers some documents were held in. The footage also showed other parts of the property.

In seeking a second round of security footage, the Justice Department want to review tapes for the weeks leading up to the Aug. 8 search.




Federal officials have indicated that their initial goal has been to secure any classified documents Mr. Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago, a pay-for-membership club where there is little control over who comes in as guests. It remains to be seen whether anyone will face criminal charges stemming from the investigation.


The combination of witness interviews and the initial security footage led Justice Department officials to begin drafting a request for a search warrant, the people familiar with the matter said.



The F.B.I. agents who conducted the search found the additional documents in the storage area in the basement of Mar-a-Lago, as well as in a container in a closet in Mr. Trump’s office, the people said.

Mr. Trump’s allies have attacked the law enforcement agencies, accusing the investigators of being partisan.

The intense public interest has now spurred a legal fight to see the search warrant’s underlying affidavit. On Monday, a federal magistrate issued a formal order directing the Justice Department to send him under seal proposed redactions to the affidavit underlying the warrant used to search Mar-a-Lago by Thursday, accompanied by a memo explaining its justifications.

In the order, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said he was inclined to release portions of the sealed affidavit but wanted to wait until he saw the government’s redactions before making a decision.



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/us/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-documents.html

 

@anon_de_plume
You see in stumblers copy n paste a perfect example of the leaks @Scotchlass was talking about.
Understand now what the problem is?

 

See how it works with @shootersa and treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans. Its not the more than 300 classified documents including TS/SCI documents. The problem is people finding out about that.

 

Now if only the right didn't use anonymous sources...

 

Mar-A-Lago docs could have caused 'massive firestorm' and 'gotten people killed' if they leaked: NBC reporter

Travis Gettys
August 23, 2022



Donald Trump stands before his luxurious Florida compound, Mar-a-Lago, where he has spent many weekends of his young presidency (AFP Photo/Don EMMERT)


The documents that Donald Trump hoarded at Mar-A-Lago could have caused a "massive firestorm" and gotten people killed if they had somehow leaked out, according to new reports.

The New York Times reported that more than 300 documents with classified markings have been recovered from the former president's home, including some marked with the highest level of classification, and NBC News reporter explained the seriousness of those to MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"In terms of a lot of people might be looking at this and going, he was president, he had access to all the secrets, so what if he accidentally had some classified documents or even intentionally in his house?" Dilanian said. "But we're talking about some documents marked TSSCI, sensitive compartmented information. I have been asking around just to reaffirm my understanding of how sensitive those documents are. Those are documents, the reason they're compartmented is because they could betray and likely would betray the sources of information, either a human source or a technical source."

"They could literally -- the disclosure of those could get people killed," he added, "so we're talking about the most sensitive documents and at least one set of documents there that the government has, and any time there's any kind of spill or disclosure in the real world of those kinds of documents, it's a massive firestorm. The federal government swoops in and does everything they can to secure this stuff. You can only look at them in special facilities, even within the Capitol or other kinds of buildings, you have to go to a special room to look at those documents. That's how sensitive some of those documents allegedly in Trump's possession were."

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-classified-documents-2657901853/

 

Just a quick question about your propaganda piece, @stumbler
So, this reporter, this anonymous source, how does he know what the 300 TOP SECRET documents contain? You know the documents, the ones another "anonymous source" told some other reporter about and that has now been taken as gospel down from the mount?
What, did this anonymous reporter see the documents? Is he an analyst capable of understanding what he saw?
Could we be seeing yet another SERIOUS violation of our nation's TOP SECRET document protection laws?
Is this reporter qualified to even have access to these TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS??

Really. Even for wrong story and you, this is pretty low yellow journalism, don't you agree?

 

Does this sound right to any of you treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans. A president, any president, should be able to take the nuclear codes with him when he leaves office and just leave them laying around in his basement?

And this could be a tell. Don Jr might be telling us Trump had the nuclear codes.



Donald Trump Jr. says 'it would probably be good' if 'nuclear codes' were stashed at Mar-a-Lago

Brandon Gage, Alternet
August 23, 2022



Donald Trump Jr. speaking at the Culture War tour at Antelope Gymnasium in 2019. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)


Donald Trump Jr. suggested on Monday that the United States would be safer if his father, former President Donald Trump, had stashed "the nuclear codes" at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The eldest Trump son shared his opinion – which resembled a stand-up comedy routine – at an event in support of Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz's reelection campaign.

"Donald Trump has the nuclear codes!! In the linen closet at Mar-a-Lago!!" Junior hollered.

"By the way, for the record, I say that if Donald Trump actually still had the nuclear codes it would probably be good," he hooted. "Our enemies – our enemies – might actually be like, 'okay, maybe, let's not mess with them.' I'm like when they look at Joe Biden then they say, 'we should attack now.'"

Watch below or at this link.


The Recount

@therecount
·
Follow
"If Donald Trump actually still had the nuclear codes, it'd probably be good." — Donald Trump Jr. with the latest Republican defense of Trump keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago











1:36 PM · Aug 22, 2022


https://www.rawstory.com/donald-tru...-if-nuclear-codes-were-stashed-at-mar-a-lago/

 

Tell you what, stumbler.
You go on record acknowledging that using "anonymous" sources is often used to hide lazy journalism, and almost certainly is in this case, and Shooter will agree that:
The national archives has stated that they received documents marked as classified or above from Trump.

Shooter is not ready to say that this constitutes a "national security threat", for the following reasons;

1) That the documents are marked as classified or above does not mean that when Trump took them they were still classified. And no, Shooter is not relying on Trump's claim that he declassified them when he took them, even though he had that authority to do exactly that until January 20, 2021. Stuff does get declassified all the time, but they don't go back and destroy all the records marked top secret and replace them with plain copies. Remember Hillary and HER "top secret" documents? Some of them were retroactively declassified and classified, weren't they? At least, that was her defense at the time.
2) We do not know the nature of the documents; they might have been the engineering plans for a 40 Lb. nuclear device or the newest submarine or they might have been the menu for a state dinner. Until we KNOW the nature of what those documents are, it's illogical to say they are a "national security threat". That is, unless you want to argue that what President Macron ate at the white house dinner in his honor constitutes a "national threat".
3) Mar a Lago is not the wide open public building the media would have us believe. It remains the residence of a former president of the United states, it is protected by Secret service utilizing all manner of security protocols. If the President is secure at Mar a Lago, whatever those documents were, they are just as secure. Probably even more secure.
4) Even if Trump had engineering plans for a nuclear device, or a submarine at Mar a Lago that does not mean he was selling them to foreign governments or leaving them laying about. That he did have anything so meaningful remains in dispute, whether he had no right to them remains in dispute, and what he intended to do with them is debatable.

So no, Shooter will not agree that those documents in Trump's basement constitute a National security threat.
But, nice drama there, stumbler.

So, what's it gonna be?

 

If, as in if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle, there were Nuke codes on some of those documents, those codes are changed every day and would be of ZERO use to any one, even Trump... Mountains out of mole hills for the sake of argument...

 

FBI agents found sensitive documents 'lying in unsecure places' outside storage room Trump had padlocked: WSJ

Brad Reed
August 23, 2022



President Donald Trump speaks to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP)


Earlier this year, federal law enforcement officials asked former President Donald Trump to better secure the storage room at his Mar-a-Lago resort where he was keeping presidential records -- and his staff complied by putting a padlock on the storage room door.

However, the Wall Street Journal reports that when FBI agents searched the resort earlier this month, they found national security documents outside of the designated area that Trump said he had secured.

Specifically, writes the Journal, agents "found highly sensitive and classified documents lying in unsecure places outside the storage room."

Additionally, the Journal reports that federal law enforcement officials were tipped off by "at least one person familiar with the location of the documents at the complex," and that this tip alarmed them to the point where they felt they needed to execute a search warrant at the former president's residence.

READ: 'It's like a form of death': Former QAnon queen followers reveal threats of violence, bullying and financial ruin

In a letter sent by the National Archives to Trump earlier this year that was revealed on Monday evening, the agency said it had found " items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials" in documents that Trump had already handed over.

Special Access Program materials, notes the Journal, are some of the most sensitive secrets the government has, and are "generally accessible only in specially designed Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs."



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-documents-mar-a-lago-2657903332/

 

More "sources"

 

Are you wiling to take the National Archives word for it while you are making up excuses for your Chosen One above our national security.


National Archives says at least 700 pages of classified materials seized from Trump’s home
by Rebecca Beitsch - 08/23/22 1:24 PM ET

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The Justice Department seized at least 700 pages of classified materials when it first recovered documents from former President Trump’s Florida home in January, according to a letter released by the National Archives on Tuesday.

An exchange between the custodians for presidential records and Trump’s attorneys, released after it was first obtained by a conservative news outlet, indicated the former president’s legal team spent months attempting to block the FBI and the intelligence community from reviewing the documents to assess the potential national security fallout.




The exchange revealed that among the materials were those at “the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials.”

The letter from the National Archives, sent in May, also reiterated a warning first relayed by the Justice Department a month before.

“Access to the materials is not only necessary for purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation, but the Executive Branch must also conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps,” Debra Steidel Wall, acting archivist of the United States, wrote in relaying a message from the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The letter offers new insights into the volume of documents that may have been stored at Mar-a-Lago, illuminating what was among the 15 boxes taken by Archives earlier this year.

Authorities separately seized another 11 sets of classified documents during an August search of Trump’s home.

The New York Times reported Monday that the government has recovered at least 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago since Trump left office.


The letter also indicates that Trump’s team of attorneys was able to successfully stymy the FBI from reviewing the materials for at least a month.

Wall’s letter makes clear that the FBI was eager to begin a damage assessment to determine whether any information was improperly shared and to take next steps to protect various sources of information gathering.

Her correspondence came at a key time in the government’s battle to get the documents. The day after the May 10 letter informed the Trump legal team they’d be turning over the documents to the FBI, the Justice Department issued a subpoena seeking remaining classified materials stored at Mar-a-Lago.


The letter is also a wholesale rejection of any executive privilege claims from Trump.


“The question in this case is not a close one. The Executive Branch here is seeking access to records belonging to, and in the custody of, the Federal Government itself,” Wall writes of the FBI request.

“There is no reason to believe such reviews could ‘adversely affect the ability of future Presidents to obtain the candid advice necessary for effective decision making.’ To the contrary: Ensuring that classified information is appropriately protected, and taking any necessary remedial action if it was not, are steps essential to preserving the ability of future Presidents to “receive the full and frank submissions of facts and opinions upon which effective discharge of [their] duties depends.”

https://thehill.com/policy/national...classified-materials-seized-from-trumps-home/

 

As we discuss the issue I suspect that nuclear physicists in Russia are looking over copies of the classified documents. If he gave them the copies, this is treason, and he deserves to hang.

 

You mean like Biden with Ukraine and China ???

 

Federal judge who signed off on Mar-a-Lago search 'carefully reviewed' FBI affidavit and considers its facts 'reliable'
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Mon, August 22, 2022 at 5:13 PM·2 min read



Local law enforcement officers are seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on August 9, 2022.GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images

• 
  Judge Bruce Reinhart said evidence in the FBI's search warrant affidavit was "reliable."
  
• A Monday court order explained the judge's concerns and arguments on unsealing the affidavit.
  
• Reinhart is waiting on proposed redactions from the government before making a final decision.
  

In a court order released Monday, Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said he found the evidence in the FBI's affidavit seeking a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago was "reliable," but he has still not determined how much of the document to release to the public.

The affidavit, which was used to secure a search warrant of former president Donald Trump's Florida residence where 11 sets of classified materials were recovered, contains "critically important and detailed investigative facts: highly sensitive information about witnesses, including witnesses interviewed by the government; specific investigative techniques," the Department of Justice argued in a motion published by Politico.

As conservative organizations and journalism outlets have submitted legal challenges arguing the affidavit is in the public interest and should be unsealed, Reinhart said in a ruling last week that he is considering releasing portions of the document, but must consider the integrity of the DOJ's ongoing criminal investigation before determining what details can be safely released.

"Having carefully reviewed the Affidavit before signing the Warrant, I was — and am — satisfied that the facts sworn by the affiant are reliable," Reinhart, who authorized the search warrant, wrote in his 13-page order regarding his considerations about whether or not to unseal the affidavit.

Reinhart stated unsealing the document "would promote public understanding of historically significant events" and that there is "intense public and historical interest in an unprecedented search of a former President's residence."

However, he wrote, the "compelling government interests" of protecting the integrity of the investigation and search methods used by the government, as well as shielding witnesses from harassment and intimidation, are factors that weigh in favor of sealing the document.

"After weighing all the relevant factors," Reinhart wrote, "I find that the Government has met its burden of showing good cause/a compelling interest that overrides any public interest in unsealing the full contents of the Affidavit."

Before making a final determination about which details to redact and which, if any, to unseal, Reinhart ordered the Department of Justice to propose redactions that would allow portions of the affidavit to be published while protecting the ongoing investigation.

The DOJ will be required to submit its proposal by Thursday, after which Reinhart will make a final decision.

Read the original article on Business Insider


https://www.yahoo.com/news/federal-judge-signed-off-mar-231311645.html