Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart recently unsealed additional portions of the affidavit used by the FBI to obtain a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald J. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida. The newly revealed information sheds light on the extraordinary process that unfolded during the investigation.
According to the unredacted sections of the affidavit, surveillance footage played a crucial role in prosecutors’ decision to search for sensitive documents. The footage captured Mr. Trump’s personal aide, Walt Nauta, moving numerous boxes in and out of a storage room in the basement of Mar-a-Lago, just days before federal prosecutors arrived to collect any remaining sensitive records.
Although much of the information in the unsealed affidavit had already been made public in the indictment of Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta, the newly released details provided a photograph of the boxes in the storage room and a detailed description of the security camera angles outside the room. The affidavit also revealed that Mr. Nauta had taken out 64 boxes from the storage room but only returned 25 or 30, leaving the whereabouts of the remaining boxes unknown.
Interestingly, the unredacted affidavit did not disclose all the reasons prosecutors believed sensitive records remained at Mar-a-Lago. However, it is worth noting that federal prosecutors suspected Mr. Trump of still possessing classified materials even after he sent 15 boxes of government records to the National Archives in January 2022 and provided an additional batch of 38 classified documents in June 2022. Surveillance footage of Mr. Nauta was just one piece of evidence supporting this belief.
Judge Reinhart, who ordered the unsealing of the affidavit, was also the judge who issued the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago in August last year. The search resulted in more than 100 documents with classification markings being seized by federal agents. Moreover, Judge Reinhart is overseeing the prosecution of Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta, with the latter scheduled for arraignment in Federal District Court in Miami on Thursday.
In response to the unsealed portions of the warrant, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, reiterated previous claims that the former president had been in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act and had been cooperative with the Justice Department. However, officials in the department have challenged these assertions.
One noteworthy detail revealed in the newly unredacted sections of the affidavit is that Mr. Trump’s lawyers did not inform prosecutors that he had declassified any of the 38 classified documents handed over in June. This omission contradicted the lawyers’ earlier claim that, as president, Mr. Trump had the authority to declassify any material he desired. Additionally, Mr. Corcoran, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, falsely informed the government that there were no classified records in any private office space or other locations at Mar-a-Lago.
In March, a federal judge in Washington compelled Mr. Corcoran to provide records and testify before a grand jury investigating the case. The judge bypassed attorney-client privilege protections, as she believed Mr. Trump had deceived Mr. Corcoran about the true locations of sensitive records at Mar-a-Lago.
Overall, the unsealed portions of the affidavit offer intriguing insights into the investigation at Mar-a-Lago. The surveillance footage, Mr. Trump’s actions, and the ongoing legal proceedings all contribute to the complex and significant nature of this case.
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