Mar-a-Lago after the FBI raid. Photo: Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The Department of Justice released Friday a redacted version of the affidavit connected to the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.
Driving the news: The affidavit outlined the evidence for the FBI's search at former President Trump's home for classified documents he took with him when he left office.
- The unsealed affidavit revealed the contents of 14 of the 15 boxes recovered by the National Archives and Record Administration earlier this year.
- The boxes had 184 documents with classification records. In all, 67 of the documents were confidential, 92 were marked as secret and 25 marked as top secret
Details: Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered for the affidavit to be unveiled with redactions by noon ET on Friday.
- He wrote that "the government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit."
- Reinhart will reportedly review the department's redactions and decide whether or not to release the affidavit, per Reuters.
- He said that the redactions could be so heavy that they could "render the document devoid of content."
Flashback: Reinhart filed a written order Monday that suggested he would call for portions of the affidavit to be unsealed, Axios' Erin Doherty reported.
- "Given the intense public and historical interest in an unprecedented search of a former President’s residence," the U.S. government did not make a strong enough case to seal the affidavit, Reinhart wrote.
- "I therefore reject the government’s argument that the present record justifies keeping the entire Affidavit under seal," he wrote.
Go deeper: Read the redacted FBI affidavit for Trump's home released by U.S. DOJ