WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department on Friday disclosed that it was investigating former President Donald Trump for removing White House records because…
The department released a heavily redacted affidavit that underpinned the FBI’s extraordinary Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Florida residence in which agents seized 11 sets of classified records including some labeled “top secret” as documents that could gravely threaten national security if exposed.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
The search was a significant escalation of one of several federal and state investigations Trump is facing involving his time in office and in private business.The agent who drafted the affidavit wrote that after the FBI reviewed the materials Trump returned in January to the National Archives – the agency responsible for preserving government records – it had probable cause to believe more documents were still inside Mar-a-Lago.
The department had sought to keep the affidavit secret. But after media organizations sued to make it public U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the search warrant based on the affidavit, on Thursday ordered the release of a redacted version. Trump complained on social media that the released affidavit was “heavily redacted” and demanded that Reinhart step aside from the case, without giving any apparent basis. Trump’s legal team has not formally made such a request.BIDEN WEIGHS IN
The newly released documents showed how Trump allies tried to claim he had declassified the records in question as a way to downplay the investigation. The affidavit mentioned an article published in May by Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official who called media reports about the National Archives identifying classified material at Mar-a-Lago “misleading.”