Republicans are pushing to see an affidavit that justified the FBI’s search of Trump’s home

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Republicans stepped up calls on Sunday for the release of an FBI affidavit showing justification for seizing documents from his Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump amid reports of increased threats against federal law enforcement personnel. .

A search warrant released last week after the unprecedented search showed that Trump had 11 sets of classified documents at his home and that the Justice Department had probable cause to conduct the search based on possible privacy violations. Espionage Act. Read more

Republicans are demanding the release of more detailed information that persuaded a federal judge to issue the search warrant, which can reveal sources of information and details about the nature of the documents and other classified information. Sealing such affidavits is highly unusual and would require the approval of a federal judge. Read more

Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com

Sign up

“I think the release of the affidavit would help, at least that would confirm that there was justification for this raid,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“The Justice Department would have to “show that this wasn’t just a fishing expedition, that they had proper reasons to go in and do this, that they exhausted all other means,” Rounds said. “What if they don’t they can do it , then we have a serious problem on our hands.”

Separately on Sunday, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Marco Rubio, asked the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide the seized documents secretly

A spokesman for the committee, which oversees the handling of classified information, said the two senators had also requested “an assessment of potential risks to national security” as a result of possible mishandling of the files.

Representative Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday that the Biden administration should provide more details about what led to the search.

“Congress is saying, ‘Show us. We want to know what the FBI told them? What did they find?'” Turner said.

The Justice Department responded to a request for comment on the FBI affidavit.

WELCOME THREATS

The Republicans’ calls came amid reports that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned of increased threats to law enforcement from social media platforms in the wake of the search for Mar -a-Lago.

The FBI said in a statement that it is always concerned about threats to law enforcement and was working with other agencies to assess and respond to such threats, “which are reprehensible and dangerous.”

Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent and Pennsylvania prosecutor, said he was concerned about the safety of federal law enforcement officers amid these threats, adding that “everyone needs to ask calm”.

He told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the search of Trump’s home “was an unprecedented action that had to be supported by unprecedented justification” and the probable cause affidavit would show whether achieved this standard, even if it was only shown. to lawmakers in a secret briefing.

“I have encouraged all my colleagues on the left and the right to reserve judgment and not move forward because we do not know what this document contains. It will give us answers to many questions.”

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

Democrats on Sunday did not echo calls for the release of the affidavit.

Instead, Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said he was calling for an assessment of the potential harm to US national security from Trump’s possession of the classified documents , along with an intelligence briefing.

The “Top Secret” documents and “Sensitive Compartmentalized Information” could cause “extremely serious harm to national security” if released, Schiff told CBS.

“So the fact that they were in an unsecured place that’s guarded with nothing more than a padlock, or whatever security they had in a hotel, is deeply alarming,” Schiff said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NBC that she could not make a judgment about whether the Justice Department should indict Trump on criminal charges.

“That’s up to the Justice Department to make a decision about what happened here, why it happened and whether it rises to the level of a crime,” Klobuchar said.

(The story corrects the 10th paragraph to read “did not respond,” adding the word “no.”)

Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com

Sign up

Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by David Shepardson and Michael Martina; Editing by Heather Timmons and Lisa Shumaker

Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *