PACER Service Under Fire After Trump Affidavit Crash Reports

Many social media users questioned the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) service on Friday as some appeared to report the website crashing just before the affidavit for the search at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was released.

“PACER is, and always has been, a disaster. And the idea that Americans have been paying for it by the page is nuts,” Twitter user Neal Katyal wrote.

Maggie Haberman of The New York Times responded to a tweet about PACER crashing and wrote, “When was the last time this many users were on PACER at once?”

Yashar Ali of New York magazine wrote, “PACER is and always has been a scourge.”

Twitter user Tyler Olson of Fox News wrote, “PACER horribly crashing as court unseals Trump raid search warrant affidavit.”

On the other hand, Tom Winter of NBC News explained that “PACER which is the national federal courts filing system has not crashed.”

Winter continued, “The docket which contains the Mar-A-Lago search warrant materials has become overloaded. This happens from time to time in high profile cases.”

The reports of users experiencing issues while attempting to use PACER came shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice released a heavily redacted affidavit that was used in order to execute a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida earlier this month.

Newsweek reached out to PACER for comment.

Above, former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is pictured on August 9. Social media users criticized the PACER service on Friday after reporting that the electronic court records system crashed while many were trying to access the redacted affidavit for the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago. GIORGIO VIERA/AFP/Getty Images

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more information becomes available.