Biden Admin Asks Court to Unseal Mar-a-Lago Raid Warrant

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Aug. 11 asked a federal court to make public materials on the search warrant FBI agents obtained and executed on former President Donald Trump’s residence in Florida this week.

Government lawyers asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart to unseal the warrant itself and some supporting materials, as well as a receipt listing items taken from the Mar-a-Lago resort.

“The department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, said in prepared remarks delivered in Washington on Thursday.

Christina Bobb, one of Trump’s lawyers, told The Epoch Times that agents were seeking classified and presidential records.

The government before the raid asked the court to shield the documents. But making them public now “would not ‘impair court functions,’ including the government’s ability to execute the warrant, given that the warrant has already been executed,” the government lawyers said in the new filing.

However, the request only asks to Reinhart to unseal the warrant and two attachments, in addition to the receipt.

Andrew Crespo, a professor of criminal law and procedure at the Harvard Law School, said that as best he can tell, the government is not asking to unseal the affidavit submitted to the judge. The affidavit, likely signed by an FBI agent, would contain crucial information on why authorities believed a warrant was necessary.

The government’s motion seems to be an attempt to try to respond to the outrage from many Republicans over the raid, John Malcolm, director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times.

“I think that this is an attempt by the Department of Justice—who may have underestimated the reaction to this through this raid—to try to get out a little bit ahead of it by saying, ‘Oh, see, what we did here was perfectly on the up and up,’” Malcolm said.

“If they really wanted to do that, in a more fulsome way, they would share that affidavit,” he added.

Circumstances Favor Unsealing

The DOJ told Reinhart that matter at hand “plainly ‘concerns public officials or public concerns,’” since agents took action at the property of a former president, and that the public’s “clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing.”

Still, the lawyers said they would provide a copy of the motion to Trump, and that he should have an opportunity to respond and lodge objections, perhaps over privacy concerns.

Reinhart ordered the government to immediately give a copy of its motion to Trump and notify the court by 3 p.m. on Aug. 12 as to whether Trump opposed the motion.

Reinhart is a judge at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Magistrate judges are picked by other judges. Reinhart signed off on the warrant on Aug. 5, according to the court docket.

After the raid took place, the nonprofit Judicial Watch and several media organizations asked Reinhart to unseal the materials, arguing that the public and press have the right to the records, particularly in light of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the raid. The judge ordered the government to respond to the requests.

Bobb, who did not respond to a request for comment, has said that the former president would request the court unseal the materials underpinning the warrant, including the affidavit outlining why officials thought the warrant should be approved. She did not respond to a request for comment on the government’s motion.

Roman Balmakov contributed to this report.

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Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news. He is based in Maryland.