DOJ opposes unsealing Mar-a-Lago affidavit

The Justice Department on Monday moved to keep confidential the affidavit it wrote to obtain a warrant for the search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday that he wanted the affidavit released in the name of transparency, and many media agencies have submitted court filings requesting to see the affidavit. But Juan Antonio Gonzalez, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jay Bratt, a top Justice Department national security official, said in a court filing that releasing the affidavit would “cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation.”

What did the feds find at Mar-a-Lago? A property receipt that the government unsealed Friday showed that FBI investigators found 11 sets of classified documents at Trump’s estate. Those agents were investigating potential violations of three different federal laws—one of which governs gathering, transmitting, or even losing defense information under the Espionage Act. The other statutes also concern the mishandling of records, especially records in federal investigations. Trump said the documents in question were declassified and that he would have handed them over without being served with a warrant.

Dig deeper: Read Lynn Vincent’s report in WORLD magazine about how the raid on Trump’s residence could signal a new era in American politics.