Requests filed to unseal search warrant used to raid Trump estate

ALBANY — A U.S. magistrate judge in South Florida on Wednesday ordered the Department of Justice to reply within five days to motions filed by Judicial Watch and the Times Union that seek to unseal a search warrant that was used by the FBI to raid former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach earlier this week. 

Judicial Watch is a conservative legal group that has waged multiple court battles seeking records related to probes involving the former  president. 

The Times Union had filed multiple letter motions this week with U.S. magistrates in Miami and West Palm Beach requesting the unsealing of the search warrant materials. It’s unclear whether the Department of Justice will oppose the motions. U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart, who signed the search warrant, on Wednesday issued two orders directing the Justice Department to reply to the motions filed by Judicial Watch and the Times Union.

“The response may be filed ex parte and under seal as necessary to avoid disclosing matters already under seal,” the judge’s order states. “In that event, the government shall file a redacted response in the public record.”

Late Wednesday, the New York Times also filed a motion to intervene in the case and that seeks to unseal the search warrant documents. The judge did not immediately rule on the Times’ motion.

Affidavits in support of search warrants that detail the “probable cause” of the alleged crimes being investigated are infrequently unsealed in federal courts during a pending investigation. But the search warrants and the “returns” — an itemized list that the U.S. attorney’s office must eventually file with the court detailing any items seized — are often unsealed before an investigation is concluded. Those materials are ordinarily provided to the person or entity who is the target of the search warrant — or their attorneys — and therefore the disclosure of the records arguably would not impede an ongoing investigation.

Trump’s attorneys have publicly stated that they were able to review the search warrant and that it indicated the seizures were based on potential offenses involving classified documents and the Presidential Records Act. Christina Bobb, one of Trump’s attorneys who was at Mar-A-Lago when the search took place, said that she was shown a copy of the search warrant but did not receive a copy.

Multiple news organizations have reported that the search of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate is connected to an ongoing Justice Department investigation into materials that allegedly should have been moved to the National Archives and Records Administration rather than the former president’s private residence.

Trump’s team has responded that they disagreed with federal officials about his right to keep some of those documents and have characterized the FBI’s raid as a heavy-handed abuse of authority and unnecessary. They described the materials as mementos that Trump wanted to keep. Justice Department officials and the FBI have declined to comment publicly on their investigation.

Earlier this year, federal authorities officials with the National Archives visited Trump’s Palm Beach residence and retrieved additional records they said were federal property. Trump’s attorneys said they added a lock to the door of the space where the records were kept — after federal officials expressed concerns about the security of that storage area.

That lock, according to Trump’s team, was broken by the FBI when Monday’s search unfolded and roughly 15 boxes of materials were seized. Trump has said the special agents broke into a safe at his residence, but it’s unclear if he was referring to the locked door.

Court records do not indicate the Justice Department has filed its search warrant returns with the court — something that often can take weeks or months. It’s unclear whether an itemized list of the materials seized was given to Trump’s attorneys by the FBI, which conducted the raid.

The extraordinary raid is apparently the first time the FBI or any law enforcement agency has executed a search warrant at the private residence of a former president. 

The motion filed by Judicial Watch, a group that has sought to obtain government documents that it purports have revealed uneven treatment of the former president, is charged with political rhetoric and suggested the investigation could be driven by the Biden administration’s desire to derail Trump’s pursuit of the Republican nomination for president in two years. 

“Judicial Watch is investigating the potential politicization of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice and whether the FBI and the Justice Department are abusing their law enforcement powers to harass a likely future political opponent of President Biden,” the motion states.

Similar rhetoric has been employed by numerous Republican elected officials and candidates in the wake of the FBI search.