Police direct traffic outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8. (Terry Renna/AP)
CNN, along with The Washington Post, NBC News and Scripps, asked a court last week to unseal documents related to the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence, including unsealed documents by the Department of Justice’s own offer to seal a selection of collateral materials.
Specifically, CNN and the rest of the media are asking the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida to unseal the entire record filed in court, including all probable cause affidavits filed in support of the search warrant. These outline why investigators believe there is probable cause that a crime was committed and evidence of that crime existed within the past few days at the location searched.
The request came after the Justice Department filed its own request in federal court to seal certain warrant materials. In comments announcing the request, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is seeking the release of the “search warrant and property receipt” from the FBI search.
In the case of unsealing by CNN and the rest of the media before the court, they pointed out “the historical importance of these facts”.
“Prior to this week’s events, not since the Nixon Administration had the federal government exercised its power to seize the records of a former president in such a public manner,” the media said in the filing. .
The filing said that “the enormous public interest in these particular records outweighs any purported interest in keeping them secret.”
“The Media Comptrollers are certainly not seeking these records for any illegitimate purpose,” the media said. “Instead, public access to these records will further public understanding of this historically significant and unprecedented execution of a search warrant at the residence of a former president.”