US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Thursday released several procedural court documents related to the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home of Mar-a-Lago.
The newly released filings provide more specificity on the potential offenses being investigated by the Justice Department — describing the offenses as the “willful retention of national defense information” as well as the “concealment or removal of government records” and “obstruction of federal investigation.”
In the filings, prosecutors also argued that the search warrant paperwork before the Mar-a-Lago search last Monday needed to be keep secret, “because the integrity of the ongoing investigation might be compromised, and evidence might be destroyed.”
The filings include the Department of Justice’s motion to seal the warrant documents, the order granting that sealing request and the criminal cover sheet.
The cover sheet also specifies that the Justice Department applied to search Mar-a-Lago, believing they could find both evidence of these crimes and get back illegally possessed items.
Note: This is not the search warrant affidavit, which would include more details. The judge plans to hear more from the Justice Department by next week about how extensively investigators want to keep confidential the document that describes their investigative steps and methods leading to the need for the search.