Key parts of the document had already been released, but various news organizations, including The Associated Press, had demanded more release of the unsealed fragments after Trump and his butler, Walt Nauta, were indicted on 38 counts. last month for hiding secret documents from investigators at the Mar-a-Lago estate. One magistrate, Bruce Reinhart, declined to order the Justice Department to fully unseal a search warrant affidavit, but did require prosecutors to publicly release an affidavit with fewer redacted portions.
The newly unsealed paragraphs lay out important evidence that prosecutors had gathered long before the raid, recounting how surveillance camera footage inside the property showed dozens of boxes being relocated by a Trump aide in the days before FBI investigators and the Department of Justice to go to the mansion to collect the documents.
During that June 3, 2022 visit, law enforcement officers were given an envelope containing 38 classified documents and told that all papers requested by subpoena were being served and that a “diligent search” had been conducted at the mansion. However, investigators had reason to believe that claim was untrue, based on the relocation of boxes they had observed on video, and that additional documents were still on the property.
Nauta’s relocation of the boxes was detailed in last month’s indictment, but its inclusion in the search warrant affidavit explains why the Justice Department considered he had probable cause to search Trump’s property. on August 8, 2022, and why investigators were concerned that the documents had been withheld intentionally.
The affidavit recounts how someone identified only as “Witness 5” was seen for several days going in and out of the mansion’s lobby with cardboard boxes and file boxes. The affidavit does not mention Nauta by name, but the dates of the actions—as well as an FBI interview “during which the location of the boxes was an important aspect of the interrogation”—consistent with the dates listed in the imputation.
Nauta is expected to be indicted Thursday in federal court in Miami. Trump has already pleaded not guilty to more than three felony charges, many of which allege willful withholding of national defense-related information.
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FUENTE: Associated Press
