Judge Bruce Reinhart on Monday admitted the FBI’s raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was “unprecedented” and formally rejected the Justice Department’s argument to keep the affidavit leading to the search under seal, citing the “intense public and historical interest.”
Reinhart, in a filing Monday morning, said he rejects “the Government’s argument that the present record justifies keeping the entire Affidavit under seal.”
“The Government argues that even requiring it to redact portions of the Affidavit that could not reveal agent identities or investigative sources and methods imposes an undue burden on its resources and sets a precedent that could be disruptive and burdensome in future cases,” Reinhart wrote. “I do not need to reach the question of whether, in some other case, these concerns could justify denying public access; they very well might.”
He added: “Particularly given the intense public and historical interest in an unprecedented search of a former President’s residence, the Government has not yet shown that these administrative concerns are sufficient to justify sealing.”
Update, excerpt from the WSJ: A former president’s rights under the Presidential Records Act trump the statutes the FBI cited to justify the Mar-a-Lago raid.
I suspect they don’t want their “sources and methods” revealed because they’ve got Trump, Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago etc. wiretapped and bugged.
I would suspect that the Trump group is well aware of that. It’s more likely that the “sources and methods” are nonsense.
Mr Steele was the source?
Or the Dems planted a fictitious story with some reporters, and then used ‘investigative’ news stories to justify the affidavit.
Sources and method, oh we already know their MO, plant a fabricated story in the slime stream media and use said stories to get a warrant. Oh and said story is usually based on “I heard from a friend who heard it from a friend”. In this case I think I read some where a dude who worked for the “Archives” saw Trump carrying a white box?
…the Government has not yet shown that these administrative concerns are sufficient to justify sealing.”
How about not yet showing ANY legitimate concern for the RAID whatsoever? … 18 mo’s. after PDJT left the WH ?
exactly
So the judge who originally signed off on the ridiculous warrant for the FBI raid is going all Judge Roy Bean on the DOJ to unseal the affidavit but leaves the door open for redactions at the DOJ’s discretion as well as his own.
I think we’ve seen this movie before.
Affadavit: “Trump ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ Ivanka while ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ was in the kitchen. They stole ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ and we knew because ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ and ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️were covered in ketchup.”
Yes… Why the reversal by the judge? He was the one that signed the warrant. How could he not know that the affidavit was sealed? How then could he approve of the warrant with a sealed affidavit, and now authorize it’s release? Could he not have kept the affidavit unsealed in the first place???
I suspect that public pressure, revealing the judge’s corruption, may have had something to do with this reversal.
Keep the pressure on, folks. I see cracks in the narrative beginning to form.
The Magistrate screwed up, and is now trying to backpedal to keep his job?
He wasn’t read up on classification law, and the DOJ said trust us?
The leak campaign from the DOJ is making him look bad?
take your pick
Source:
We already visited Trump’s Florida property earlier. He has some stuff – he showed it to us and we already took what we thought we wanted. But we changed our minds and wanted more.
Method:
Send a whole bunch of armed agents and raid the house. Spend a full day rummaging through everything (Including Melania’s undies) and take whatever you want.
There! It’s out in the open.
Time for the Feds to show Judge Reinhart what they have in his secret dossier.
Yup.Just like the dossiers they have shown to all the other “friends of Jeffery Epstein”.
Who watches the watchmen?
I suspect that the good judge is feeling some heat from somewhere, and this would be a great way to pass the buck. He was only acting upon the scary papers the nice G-man showed him.
Once again, showing the utility of having your public figures go into hiding, so they can get room service and watch free cable while not worrying about ‘heat’. Can’t he make all of his future court appearances by video?
Sigh. If only Gramsci had forseen this, we would be living happy in a socialist paradise by now.
“I suspect that the good judge is feeling some heat from somewhere, ”
I’m guessing that he wasn’t expecting his connections to the Clintons, the Democrats and Epstein to come to light quite so quickly.