Judge Orders DOJ to Redact Mar-a-Lago Affidavit Ahead of Potential Unsealing

A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to redact and potentially eventually release the affidavit used to request a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. 

The judge, Bruce Reinhart, gave the Justice Department a week to redact the document. The DOJ argued that unsealing the affidavit could compromise a national security investigation, including by revealing the identities of key witnesses. Over a dozen media outlets — including the Associated Press (Lean Left bias), The New York Times (Lean Left bias), The Washington Post (Lean Left bias), CBS News (Lean Left bias), NBC News (Lean Left bias), Judicial Watch (Lean Right bias), CNN (Left bias), The Palm Beach Post (Center bias) and others — argued the affidavit should be unsealed. 

Reinhart said portions of the document “could be presumptively unsealed,” adding that it was not for him to decide “whether those portions would be meaningful for the public or the media.” While Reinhart will make his final decision on August 25, he reportedly ordered some related documents to be unsealed today, including the application for the warrant.

Coverage was widespread and prominently featured in outlets across the political spectrum. Some coverage differed in reflecting the specifics of Reinhart’s ruling, particularly that he had not yet made his final decision on unsealing.