Judge ‘inclined’ to release partial Trump search warrant affidavit

The federal magistrate judge who authorised last week’s search of former president Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, home has ordered the Department of Justice to lay out what parts of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant should remain secret to protect ongoing criminal investigations.

Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Thursday gave federal prosecutors seven days to propose what parts of the affidavit — a sworn statement by a law enforcement officer laying out how and why the Justice Department came to believe there was evidence of crimes at Mr Trump’s home — should be redacted before the public can be permitted to view it.

Multiple news organisations have asked the judge to unseal the document, citing the extraordinary public interest in the unprecedented search of an ex-president’s property. The news outlets have argued in court documents that releasing the affidavit would allow the public to judge whether the search was justified in light of Mr Trump’s claim that the search — and the investigation itself — are the latest iterations of a long-running political witch hunt against him and his allies.

But at a Thursday hearing in West Palm Beach, federal prosecutor Jay Bratt said unsealing it would provide a “road map” of the probe, which is focused on how and why classified documents that are legally property of the United States government remained at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club nearly 18 months after his term in office expired.

Mr Bratt, who leads the department’s counterintelligence and export control section, said the probe was in “early stages” and warned that exposing the affidavit could jeopardise future investigative steps.

In a motion opposing the unsealing of the affidavit, he and US Attorney Juan Gonzalez said releasing the full document would "cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation,” which they said pertains to Mr Trump’s handling of "highly classified material".

"If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government's ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps," they wrote. The prosecutors also noted that releasing information on witnesses against Mr Trump would put them in danger.

But Mr Reinhart said he was “inclined” to unseal at least a redacted copy of the document which keeps secret those sections which the government specifies in order to protect the investigation and national security.

The magistrate judge has already unsealed one document in the case, the warrant itself. That document, which was made public after the Department of Justice asked for it to be unsealed last week, revealed that federal prosecutors and law enforcement are investigating whether Mr Trump or anyone else in his orbit violated parts of the Espionage Act which makes it unlawful to mishandle national defence information, or obstructed a federal investigation.

Mr Trump and his lawyers have called for the release of the entire affidavit, including the names of witnesses and law enforcement officials involved in the investigation, though they did not file any documents with the court in support of the news organizations’ motion.

Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for the ex-president, said on Twitter that Mr Trump “has made his view clear that the American people should be permitted to see the unredacted affidavit”. He also characterised the Justice Department’s arguments about witness safety and harm to the ongoing investigation as a “cynical attempt to hide the whole affidavit from Americans”.

Mr Trump’s attorneys have also argued that the unredacted document should be made public so the identities of witness can be revealed to the ex-president and his supporters, many of whom have made a practice of issuing death threats and mounting campaigns of harassment against any figures, public or private, who they perceive as opposed to Mr Trump.

With additional reporting by agencies