(MON 8/29/22)
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board somewhat famously flipped on its support of ex-President Donald J. Trump in July over his complicity in the January 6 Capitol insurrection < https://thehustings.news/reactions-to-the-1-6-hearings-season-finale/?fbclid=IwAR1jufdXpDcuU4mtlT7FLd-Jc7oGSXD7eGtuyceoQ2CumdJ4Ma2K7_X3LDc&loggedout=true>. But after the Department of Justice released 38 heavily redacted pages of affidavit in support of the FBI’s August 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and private golf club, the WSJ’s opinion pages led off with, “Is that all there is?”
About half the 38 pages were redacted, with some pages completely blacked out in what the Justice Department said is an ongoing criminal investigation. The document includes “sensitive details about human intelligence sources or how spy agencies intercept the electronic communications of foreign targets,” according to The Washington Post. The Justice Department “is suspicious of obstruction by Trump or his allies,” WaPo says, and “(i)t’s possible Trump allies were talking to the FBI about all this.”
The affidavit counts 25 top secret documents, 92 secret documents and 67 confidential documents among the 184 documents the Justice Department says Trump kept, unsecured, at Mar-a-Lago.
--Todd Lassa
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Judge Orders Release of Redacted Affidavit (FRI, 8/26/22)
Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhardt has ordered the U.S. Justice Department to unseal its redacted affidavit that lays out the evidence used for the FBI’s August 8 search of Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for sensitive government documents the ex-president allegedly mishandled after he left the White House, according to Politico. Reinhardt has accepted the DOJ redactions that were due at noon Eastern time Thursday, while the Justice Department warns that the heavy redactions would render the documents incomprehensible.
It is unclear whether the Justice Department will appeal, Politico reports.
In his ruling, Reinhardt emphasized the Justice Department’s “good cause” in redacting elements that would have revealed “identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents and uncharged parties,” as well as “strategy, direction, scope, sources and methods,” and information about the grand jury.
Meanwhile: Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon has given Trump’s attorneys until Friday to better explain why the former president wants a “special master” to review the Justice Department’s evidence in the case, CNN reports.
--Todd Lassa