WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Monday objected to the release of the affidavit used to justify the search of former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida home, saying its release “would jeopardize future steps in the investigation.” investigation” and would “probably chill” cooperation with witnesses.
In a 13-page closing statement, filed in federal court in South Florida in response to requests from The New York Times and other news outlets to release evidence included in the document, prosecutors suggested the department had undertook a vast and intensive investigation. in Mr. Trump’s handling of some of the government’s most secret documents after he left office.
Prosecutors have acknowledged interviewing witnesses as part of the investigation into Mr. Trump’s retention of the material. They also wrote that the publication of the document could jeopardize the continuation of the investigation.
“Disclosure of the government affidavit at this stage would also likely impede future cooperation from witnesses whose assistance may be sought as this investigation progresses,” prosecutors wrote. They added that releasing the affidavit could also harm “other high-profile investigations.”
One of the reasons given by the government for withholding the affidavit was to protect the identity of the witnesses from death threats. On Monday, Pennsylvania prosecutors released charges against a man accused of repeatedly threatening to kill FBI agents in the days after Trump’s property was searched.
The magistrate judge who signed the search warrant, Bruce E. Reinhart, will ultimately decide whether the affidavit should be released. It is unclear when he will rule on the news media request.
The legal — and political — responses to the search were still reverberating a week after FBI agents appeared at the resort while the president was at his club in Bedminster, NJ.
Mr Trump, who has accused Attorney General Merrick B. Garland of conducting a politically motivated “witch hunt” and searching his family’s assets, claimed on Monday that the government “stole my three passports,” in an article on Truth Social, the online platform he founded.
On Monday evening, the Justice Department admitted the error and contacted Mr. Trump’s legal team to retrieve the three passports – two of them expired and the third an active diplomatic passport, according to one of the lawyers for the former president, Evan Corcoran, and a spokesperson. for the department.
Mr. Garland agreed last week to release the warrant used to search Mr. Trump’s private club, but resisted attempts to release the underlying affidavit, a much more sensitive document that is expected to contain, among other things, the reasons prosecutors believe it was likely because evidence of a crime could be found at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
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The investigation into the mishandling of government records, though known for months, was not considered as significant as the department’s sprawling investigation into the attack on Capitol Hill, which is closing in on Mr. Trump and his associates. main advisors.
Federal agents removed top-secret documents when they searched Mr. Trump’s residence last week as part of an investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws, according to a search warrant issued on Friday.
At least one attorney for Mr. Trump signed a written statement in June saying all material marked as classified and kept in boxes in a storage area at Mar-a-Lago had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge said. the document. .
Even as the former president fought back, new details emerged of how Mr. Trump and his entourage flouted the norms, and possibly the laws, governing their handling of government records.
According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Mr. Trump and his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, the man who oversaw presidential records in the administration’s chaotic final days, failed to organize an effort to collecting, packaging and delivering materials to the National Archives – as previous presidents, and Mr. Trump’s own Vice President, Mike Pence, have done.
Instead, they often focused on settling political grievances and personal grudges, they said.
In the weeks leading up to Mr. Trump’s departure from the White House, officials discussed what to do with the equipment he had taken with him at various points from the residency and which needed to be properly stored and returned.
By then, personnel secretary Derek Lyons, known for trying to keep systems in place, had left administration. Mr. Meadows said he would fix those issues, according to a senior administration official.
While all of this was going on, a very different scenario was playing out just across West Executive Avenue, in Mr. Pence’s less frantic office.
As Mr. Trump sought to hold on to power, two of Mr. Pence’s top aides — Marc Short, his chief of staff, and Greg Jacob, his attorney — indexed and canned all of his government documents, according to three former officials knowing work.
Mr Jacobs spent most of his last days in government packing the last boxes, in a bid to ensure that Mr Pence leaves office without a single piece of paper that does not belong to him, said one of the responsible.