(TStarnes) – The Department of Justice released the redacted affidavit Friday that led to the FBI’s raid on President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month.
“I hope the American people see through this. It’s very disturbing,” national radio host Todd Starnes said. “Just more evidence we need to defund and dismantle the FBI.”
REACTION BELOW:
According to the government's own affidavit demanding authority to raid Trump's home, the unprecedented raid was necessary because a bureaucrat at the National Archives was mad that Trump had "newspapers, magazines, [and] printed news articles." https://t.co/RwcfYi8ADP pic.twitter.com/OSpDrc1KeJ
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 26, 2022
20 of the 32 pages on the Affidavit justifying an FBI raid on a former president's home are either mostly or fully redacted.
I learned so much about how transparent the DOJ is from reading it just now.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 26, 2022
This is way too much redaction. Revealing a source or a method is the only reason to redact. This is done by redacting words not paragraphs.
Intel agencies have created a crisis of confidence. https://t.co/Ejs92s8YJh
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 26, 2022
How many black magic markers did the FBI go through when they redacted the Mar-a-Lago affidavit?
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) August 26, 2022
Click here to see the redacted memo explaining the reason for redactions, which did not include “national security,” Breitbart reports. The vast majority of “reasons for withholding” are blacked out, except for one: “agent safety.” Click here to see.
Florida judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed off on the FBI’s search warrant, ordered that the Biden DOJ make public a redacted version of the affidavit that led to the unprecedented Aug. 8 raid. He said the redactions were sufficiently narrow.
“I find that the government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the affidavit,” he wrote, explaining the marked out portions were necessary to protect witnesses, agents and parties who had not been charged – as well as the overall strategy and scope of the probe.
Even the reasons for the redactions were redacted:
BREAKING: Here is the government's formerly sealed memo of law explaining its proposed redactions for the Trump search warrant affidavit.https://t.co/yBEphiJeeW pic.twitter.com/O2fOHM3rnt
— Chris “Subscribe to Law Dork!” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) August 26, 2022
The Justice Department's reasons for keeping large portions of its Mar-a-Lago warrant application sealed are themselves sealed. pic.twitter.com/H86pYcnQL2
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) August 26, 2022
Before the release, Trump posted the following statement on Truth Social:
The political Hacks and Thugs had no right under the Presidential Records Act to storm Mar-a-Lago and steal everything in sight, including Passports and privileged documents. They even broke into my safe with a safecracker – Can you believe? This Act was created for a very good reason, and it works. We are right now living in a Lawless Country, that just so happens to be, also, a Failing Nation!
The House GOP Judiciary Committee mocked the release in a tweet:
#BREAKING: Read an early copy of the Trump raid affidavit. pic.twitter.com/S7xyGkWgr1
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2022
toddstarnes.com/politics/see-it-dojs-redacted-affidavit-for-fbis-trump-raid/