![]() And ideological thinking is now much more closely aligned with partisanship than in the past. The overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%. And a new survey of 10,000 adults nationwide finds that these divisions are greatest among those who are the most engaged and active in the political process. These trends manifest themselves in myriad ways, both in politics and in everyday life. In the weeks since the search, congressional Republicans have denounced the actions of the FBI and vowed hefty oversight of the Biden administration should the GOP win control of either chamber of Congress in this fall’s midterm elections.Įarlier this month, Reinhart released documents showing the Justice Department is investigating the former president for potential violations of espionage laws, mishandling of classified information and destruction of government records.Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in the last two decades. Media organizations and conservative groups pushed for the affidavit’s release as the former president argued the Biden administration has it out for him. The records unsealed Friday are the latest public airing of the FBI’s investigation into the former president that has roiled the nation’s politics. He also personally attacked the magistrate judge, saying he had “animosity and hatred of your former president, me.” He called it “a total public relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ” and said, “WE GAVE THEM MUCH” before the search. Trump issued a statement after the affidavit's release, arguing the magistrate judge should not have signed off on the warrant. ![]() In a letter to Trump included in the affidavit, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation said documents “have not been handled in an appropriate manner or stored in an appropriate location” and said Mar-a-Lago did not have the proper facilities to secure such sensitive documents. Several of the documents also contained what appear to be Trump’s handwritten notes, the affidavit states.įurther, the affidavit said the agency received evidence indicating that Trump stored additional documents at Mar-a-Lago. entities requires approval from the agency that originated the documents. The search warrant affidavit states that, following the end of the Trump administration, the National Archives requested hundreds of presidential documents that belong to the government.Įarlier this year, Trump sent 15 boxes of documents to the archives, which the FBI said included 184 documents with classified information and 25 marked as “Top Secret,” the FBI affidavit states.įBI agents also found documents that had controls on dissemination, such as ORCON, which means that dissemination beyond pre-approved U.S. “In short, the government has well-founded concerns that steps may be taken to frustrate or otherwise interfere with this investigation if facts in the affidavit were prematurely disclosed,” the Justice Department wrote in its filing to justify the redactions. District Court for the Southern District of Florida agreed to the redactions and made public the affidavit supporting the unprecedented search of the former president’s residence, which found classified documents as part of an espionage investigation into Trump. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in the U.S. In a filing that proposed nearly 60 redactions, the Justice Department argued that it is protecting its investigation and a “significant number” of civilian witnesses and federal law enforcement has already faced death threats after the search. The affidavit stated the FBI had probable cause to believe Trump still had sensitive information about national defense, signals intelligence and other documents that could harm national security.īut about half of the affidavit is hidden behind thick black lines and boxes that covered some of what would be the most revealing information about the Justice Department’s justification and investigation. The 38-page search warrant affidavit for a Mar-a-Lago raid earlier this month laid out communications and escalating tensions between the Trump team, the National Archives and Records Administration and investigators over the past 18 months. ![]() A federal magistrate judge released a significantly redacted FBI affidavit Friday that justified a search of former President Donald Trump’s private club, after the Justice Department argued that airing too much of its evidence could endanger witnesses and the ongoing investigation.
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