DOJ urges judge to keep Trump search warrant affidavit sealed to protect national security investigation

A seal reading “Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation” is displayed on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington, DC, August 9, 2022.

A key document related to the FBI's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home could compromise the national security investigation.

Three days after the federal judge made public the search warrant and other materials that outlined some key details of the raid on the former president's Palm Beach, Florida, resort home, the government requested it be kept confidential.

Attorney General Garland said last week that he personally approved the warrant and that he supported its disclosure because of the public interest.

The affidavit supports the search warrant, but the Department of Justice said it presents a different set of considerations.

There are compelling reasons why the affidavit should not be made public, including to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security.

They argued in the filing that the affidavit contained important and detailed investigative facts.

Highly sensitive information about witnesses, including witnesses interviewed by the government, are included in those facts.

The affidavit would serve as a road map to the government's ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a way that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps.

The high-profile nature of this matter and the risk that the revelation of witness identities would impact their willingness to cooperate with the investigation make information about witnesses particularly sensitive.

The redactions needed to mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive that the remaining text would be meaningless.

While at the same time raising more questions about the federal investigation into the former president, the search warrant and property receipt that were made public Friday shed a lot of light on the search of Trump's home.

Multiple sets of documents marked top secret and classified were among the items seized by the FBI. One of the criminal statutes the agents were looking for was part of the Espionage Act.

The text of the law states that if you remove or destroy government records, you will be disqualified from holding an office in the United States. Title 18 of the United States Code does not depend on whether the documents in question were classified.

The FBI took three of Trump's passports during the raid, he wrote on his social media platform.