A federal magistrate judge will hold a hearing Thursday to decide on a request to unseal the affidavit that investigators submitted to get a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch and a dozen media outlets have asked Judge Bruce Reinhart to unseal the affidavit that would detail why federal authorities asked for permission to search Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.
On Friday, Reinhart unsealed the search warrant and the receipt for the property from the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago last week. The Justice Department supported the measure, but objects to the affidavit being unsealed.
“Disclosure of the government’s affidavit at this stage would also likely chill future cooperation by witnesses whose assistance may be sought as this investigation progresses, as well as in other high-profile investigations,” the Justice Department wrote in response to the media outlets’ request to unseal the affidavit.
“The fact that this investigation implicates highly classified materials further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the investigation and exacerbates the potential harm if information is disclosed to the public prematurely or improperly.”
According to the search warrant, the search was an evidence-gathering step in a national security investigation about presidential records stored at Mar-a-Lago.
The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents during the search, according to the search receipt that was released Friday.
The hearing was set by Reinhart and will be held at 1 p.m. in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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