Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks on FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

CNN, joined by the Washington Post, NBC News and Scripps, asked a court on Thursday to unseal documents connected to the FBI search of former President Trump’s Florida residence this week – including documents not covered by the Justice Department’s own bid to unseal a selection of the warrant materials.

Specifically, CNN and the other outlets are asking for the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida to unseal the entire record filed with the court, including all probable cause affidavits filed in support of the search warrant.  

The request was filed after the Justice Department submitted its own request with the federal court to unseal certain warrant materials. In remarks announcing the request, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is seeking the release of the “search warrant and property receipt” from the FBI’s search.  

But there are other documents that prosecutors file with federal courts when seeking search warrant, including affidavits from investigators laying out why they believe that there is probable cause that a crime was committed and that evidence of that crime existed in recent days at the site where the search was sought.

Garland said Thursday that he would not be “providing further details as to the basis of the search at this time.” The department also declined to comment on why it is not seeking to unseal the affidavits.

In the unsealing filing by CNN and the other outlets with the court, they pointed to “the historic importance of these events.”

Similar requests filed separately by the conservative group Judicial Watch, as well as the news outlets the Times Union and the New York Times, have prompted a magistrate judge to order that the Justice Department respond to the requests by 5 p.m. on Monday. That response can be filed secretly, the court said, but the department will also have to file a redacted version on the public docket.