The federal magistrate judge who approved the 8 August search of former president Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida home has ordered the release of a redacted version of the affidavit FBI agents used to obtain a warrant to search the ex-president’s property.
In a two-page order issued on Thursday, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said the Department of Justice had met the “compelling reason” or “good cause” legal standard required to keep portions of the sworn statement under seal because disclosing those portions would reveal “identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties” as well as the “strategy, direction, scope, sources, and methods” of the ongoing investigation into whether Mr Trump violated US laws against unauthorised retention of national defence information and obstructing investigations.
