A federal magistrate judge on Thursday said he would release a redacted version of the affidavit that convinced him to approve a warrant to search former President Trump’s Florida home.
The decision from Judge Bruce Reinhart comes after he ordered the Justice Department to propose redactions to a document whose full release they argued would compromise their ongoing investigation.
In his order Reinhart found the redactions from DOJ to be sufficiently narrow.
“I find that the Government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the Affidavit,” Reinhardt wrote, noting that it could reveal both the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties as well as the investigation’s strategy, direction, scope.
DOJ is ordered to file a public version of its redacted document by noon Friday.
In an earlier ruling, Reinhart cautioned that redactions could be so broad as to make the release “meaningless,” warning if they were too extensive it could make him less inclined to force its disclosure.
“I cannot say at this point that partial redactions will be so extensive that they will result in a meaningless disclosure, but I may ultimately reach that conclusion after hearing further from the government,” he wrote.
Reinhart’s Thursday ruling offers little insight into what the public may ultimately glean from the release, but he ultimately decided it was “the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire affidavit.”
DEVELOPING…
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3615869-judge-to-release-redacted-affidavit-on-fbis-trump-home-search/
