A former federal prosecutor says a tidbit in newly undredacted sections of the Justice Department’s search warrant for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is damaging one of the former president’s potential defenses.
A federal judge on Wednesday unsealed A slightly less edited version the affidavit that ultimately allowed the FBI to search Trump’s Florida home on August 8 last year. A previously redacted sentence about the material found at the property read: “Several documents also contained what appeared to be handwritten notes by FPOTUS.”
According to former US Attorney Joyce Vance, who analyzed the document, it was an “interesting” note that could have potential implications for Trump’s defense their latest substack newsletter.
“This means Trump cannot claim he never saw the documents,” Vance wrote. “The best he could claim was that the notes were written during his tenure. But resorting to that argument, he still has to explain how the documents ended up in Mar-a-Lago once in his hands.”
While not much new information was revealed, Vance said, “We are seeing the depth of government and learning about its strength.”
“Perhaps most importantly, the release of this interesting information underscores how much more there is that we don’t know,” she wrote.
The affidavit was originally filed in court in sealed form last year when investigators asked permission to search Mar-a-Lago to locate and retrieve secret documents they believed were improperly taken and stored there.
Other parts was already unsealed by Judge Bruce Reinhart in response to media inquiries after the search. Trump was charged last month with 37 offenses related to his handling of classified material.