“Q. Trump has made clear his view that the American people should be allowed to see the redacted affidavit related to the raid and invasion of his home,” Taylor Budowitz, a spokesman for the former president, said Thursday after the federal Judge Bruce Rinehart. may be willing to unseal portions of the document. Reinhart ordered Justice Department officials to propose amendments to the document by next Thursday. “Today, Judge Reinhard overruled the DOJ [Justice Department’s] cynical attempt to hide the entire affidavit from the Americans,” Budovitch continued. “However, no redactions should be needed and the entire affidavit should be released, given the propensity of Democrats to use red tape to hide government corruption, as they did with the Russia hoax.” Trump and his supporters have believed for years that the FBI and Justice Department are biased against the former president, arguing that the bureau improperly monitored his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump posted separately on Truth Social, his social media platform, calling for the “immediate release” of the unredacted affidavit, citing the need for transparency. He also called on Reinhart to withdraw from the case without giving a clear reason. The rhetoric from Trump and his camp follows a similar playbook, experts say, in which the former president demands the release of potentially sensitive information. If the administration and the judge refuse to release the full, unredacted document, it allows Trump and his allies to claim that federal law enforcement is hiding something, further fueling mistrust among Trump supporters. “It’s certainly consistent with a plan to decriminalize law enforcement and law enforcement that specifically targets him,” said Dan Richman, a law professor at Columbia University. “Because he knows, as everyone knows, the government, regardless of the case, will be opposed to the disclosure of search warrants as a matter of policy.” The affidavit, which was used to convince Reinhart that there was enough evidence to support the probable cause needed to obtain a search warrant, contains information about the federal law enforcement investigation into Trump’s handling of material he had classified as classified after he left the White House. The Justice Department argued that releasing the affidavit could jeopardize the ongoing investigation, as well as sources of information about the case. Releasing identifying information about these sources could lead to threats. Rinehart, for example, has been subjected to threats since he signed the warrant to search Mar-a-Lago. Beyond the risks to the Justice Department, there could be some risks to Trump if the full affidavit comes out. “There is a risk if it appears that he was sharing information with unauthorized parties while he was out of office,” said a former Trump adviser, who noted that such details could eventually be redacted by the administration. Experts also pointed out that the affidavit could reveal exchanges between the Justice Department and Trump’s team discussing the need to return sensitive materials, ultimately showing that the administration had made several good-faith efforts to secure the documents in question before resort to a search warrant. The release of the affidavit could also pose political risks for Trump if it bolsters the case that Trump mishandled classified information. Polling has already shown that a significant percentage of voters believe Trump may have broken the law as president. A Politico-Morning Consult poll released days after the Mar-a-Lago investigation found about half of registered voters approved of the raid, though only 15 percent of Republicans did. And 58 percent of voters said they think Trump has definitely or probably broken the law as president. Trump considers proposal to appoint ‘special master’ to look into evidence from Mar-a-Lago probe: lawyer Five things we learned this week about the FBI’s search of Trump’s home While calls to release the affidavit are likely to galvanize his hard-line supporters, it could ultimately raise further concerns for the wider public. Trump will need to tap into a broader base to win the White House if he runs for president in 2024. Richman, the Columbia law professor, said he did not expect it to be the end of the matter if the judge chooses to release the affidavit with limited or no redactions, saying the government would likely appeal such a decision. “I would expect that central to the appeal would be the broader institutional question of whether this should be done,” Richman said. “It could set a very bad precedent for high-profile searches in the future.”
