Judicial Watch has announced that a hearing has been ordered for August 18 for media requests for the underlying affidavit and other warrant materials tied to the unprecedented and controversial FBI raid on the home of former President Trump.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart will preside.
Date: Thursday, August 18
Time: 1 p.m. ET
Location: West Palm Beach Division
Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse
701 Clematis Street, Room 202
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Biden's Department of Justice is opposing Judicial Watch’s request that the court unseal the affidavit.
The Justice Department was ordered by Magistrate Judge Reinhart to respond to Judicial Watch’s motion to unseal the warrant and supporting materials behind the FBI raid of President Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago.
In its filing, the Justice Department alleged that releasing the affidavit would “cause significant and irreparable damage” to its ongoing criminal investigation.
Judicial Watch's President Tom Fitton has issued the following statement in response to the Justice Department’s opposition to Judicial Watch’s Motion to Unseal:
It seems like the Biden Justice Department is telling the court what to do. Respectfully, the court should make its own independent assessment of the compelling public interest in transparency about this abusive raid. The ‘criminal investigation’ the Biden administration is covering up reeks of corruption and dishonesty – and is based on a reinvention of law about presidential records that is at odds with the U.S. Constitution, court rulings, federal statutes, and prior government legal positions and practice. No administration should be able to raid the home of a former president and putative presidential candidate based on ‘secret’ reasons.
The U.S. Constitution and federal law give unreviewable authority to President Trump to take whatever records he wishes at the end of his presidency. The Biden administration’s dishonest depiction of personal records of President Trump it illicitly seized during the raid as “classified” is further demonstration that the raid was a brazen act of raw political abuse.
Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch
Read the timeline of events below, as noted by Judicial Watch, following the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago:
On August 9, Judicial Watch filed its motion asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to unseal as soon as possible the search warrant materials used by the FBI to raid President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida (U.S. v. Sealed Search Warrant (Case No. 9:22-mj-08332)).
On August 11, the DOJ filed a motion offering to unseal certain warrant materials.
On August 12, Judicial Watch Judicial Watch filed President Trump’s public statement with the court, in which he made it clear that he would not oppose the release of documents related to the August 8, 2022, raid. Later that day, the DOJ made a partial release of the Trump raid warrant materials.
Read more about Judicial Watch's actions here.
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