The former president demanded transparency around the search of Mar-a-Lago. He didn’t get quite that. Nor did he get closure.
Donald Trump entered Thursday demanding answers about the basis for the FBI search of his private residence and calling for a swift end to the investigation. Instead, the former president got few new details about the probe and a piece of unwelcome news to boot: the feds are just getting started.
That was the message from top Justice Department prosecutors during an hour-long federal court hearing Thursday over whether to publicly release elements of the probable-cause affidavit that led to the unprecedented search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. And it’s the latest sign that the Trump legal controversies that have clouded Washington for years may be entering a new protracted chapter.
Trump has ricocheted from one legal crisis to another since 2015. But now, in addition to a grand jury probe of his efforts with allies to disrupt the 2020 transition of power, and an Atlanta-area election investigation that also may result in criminal charges, he is staring down a Justice Department review of his handling of classified documents that could present the most acute legal threat of all.
But he’s not the only one in a vise. With Trump weighing a comeback bid for the presidency, the Mar-a-Lago matter also presents great risks for the Justice Department, where Attorney General Merrick Garland has already made a break from history by agreeing to release the search warrant itself. Though institutionalists within DOJ are unlikely to welcome efforts to unseal even more details — a fact underscored during Thursday’s hearing — Garland has already made clear the Trump probe is unique and may warrant more disclosures than the department typically allows.
At Thursday’s proceedings, the Justice Department’s top counterintelligence official, Jay Bratt, repeatedly emphasized that the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified White House records “is in its early stages.” Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who authorized the search on Aug. 5, ordered prosecutors to propose redactions to the affidavit by next week, indicating that he was skeptical of the Justice Department’s arguments to keep those documents under seal. He set a deadline of next Thursday for prosecutors to propose redactions to the affidavit.
“I’m not prepared to find the affidavit should be fully sealed,” Reinhart said.
But Reinhart also signaled he would likely allow significant redactions, and a final resolution on the issue of public access to the pivotal court filing may still be a long way off.
Trump’s legal woes enter yet another protracted phase – POLITICO