A federal judge in Florida has ordered a revision of the affidavit leading to the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, paving the way for its possible release.
Judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed the search warrant executed by the FBI last Monday, ruled Thursday that the Justice Department has until noon next Thursday to file a revised version of the affidavit.
Judge Reinhart said he believed parts of the affidavit could “presumably be unsealed, but it was not up to him to determine whether those parts would be meaningful to the public or the media.”
The surprising decision came after the Justice Department argued that the affidavit should be sealed so as not to compromise its investigation, which was noted by Jay Bratt, head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence department, which is still in its “early stages” and It includes “many witnesses.”
“It’s not a precedent we want to set,” Bratt said of the affidavit’s possible overlook.
The Justice Department last week issued a search warrant that revealed Trump is under investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act. The affidavit, which led to the warrant, contains more details about the investigation, including information about the witnesses. Trump and his aides have been pushing for the release of the affidavit, though his team presented no arguments in court Thursday for exactly why they think it should be closed.