A federal magistrate judge on Wednesday unsealed some previously redacted portions of the affidavit the FBI used to obtain a search warrant for classified documents at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last year.
The unredacted sections of the document suggest that investigators sought the warrant after surveillance footage near a storage room in the Mar-a-Lago basement showed Walt Nauta, Trump's personal valet and co-defendant, moving boxes days before federal prosecutors met with Trump lawyers at the resort to retrieve any remaining classified documents he had in his possession.
"It looks like DOJ knew, when they asked for the search warrant, that a significant number of boxes Trump took out of the WH weren't included in the storage area he identified as the only repository of his materials," tweeted former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance. "Early evidence of significant obstruction of the investigation."
The unsealing was ordered by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed off on the warrant. The newly unsealed portions include photos of dozens of boxes in the Mar-a-Lago storage room and descriptions of the footage captured by security cameras.
"The door to the storage room was painted gold and had no other markings on it," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The door to the storage room is located approximately midway up the wall and is reachable by several wooden stairs."
The affidavit said Nauta took about 64 boxes of the room but only returned about 25 to 30 of them.
"Video footage reflects that evidence has been moved recently," the affidavit said. "It cannot be seen on the video footage where the boxes were moved when they were taken from the storage room area, and accordingly, the current location of the boxes that were removed from the storage room area but not returned to it is unknown."
When prosecutors arrived, Trump attorney Evan Corcoran "stated he was advised all the records that came from the White House were stored in one location within Mar-a-Lago, the storage room, and the boxes of records in the storage room were 'the remaining repository' of records from the White House," the affidavit says, adding that Corcoran said "he was not advised there were any records in any private office space or other location in Mar-a-Lago."
Some portions of the affidavit remain under seal.
"I still think that the real story is what is left that is redacted," former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor, told MSNBC on Wednesday. "And we know from other reporting that the grand jury is continuing to do its work. To continue to investigate. That means there could be additional charges. Or additional defendants who get charged."
Recent reports revealed that the Florida grand jury that indicted Trump has issued new subpoenas in its ongoing investigation.
"So my guess is that that is the kind of material that they are trying to protect. Ordinarily public documents should be fully unredacted" unless there is "some legitimate law enforcement reason for it," she explained.
"So there could be some witnesses that they are trying to protect," she added. "Or some lines of inquiry they are trying to protect. Until they finalize and complete the remaining steps in that investigation, I am very curious to find it what it is."
