The attorney general, who applied for permission to search Trump’s mansion, asked for the court’s decision to be made public after an uproar arose over the matter. Trump still has time to object to disclosure if he wishes.
12.8.•Updated 12.8.
Former President of the United States Donald Trump writes on his own social media service that he is not against the publication of the search warrant for his mansion – on the contrary.
– I will go one step further and URGE to make the documents public immediately, Trump writes according to the US media.
In the same message thread, Trump says his legal team is cooperating with the authorities, but strongly criticizes the “un-American, groundless and unnecessary raid”.
The federal police FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida earlier this week. According to media reports, the FBI was looking for classified documents that may have been taken without permission from the White House at the end of Trump’s presidency.
of The Washington Post (you are moving to another service) according to sources, documents related to nuclear weapons, among other things, were searched in the mansion. There is no more detailed information about what the documents might have contained and whether they were found.
The search for a home for the former president’s possessions is very exceptional. It has created a great uproar and controversy in the United States. Trump and his supporters blame the president Joe Biden administration and democrats from the “witch hunt”. Opponents of Trump see the home search as a new indication of the corruption of the former president’s administration.
Trump still has time to file an objection
The Minister of Justice who signed the home search warrant application Merrick Garland announced on Thursday that due to the great interest in the case, the court that granted the warrant should make public its decision and the list of items seized by the FBI.
The unfinished investigation would not normally be made public, but according to Garland, the matter can be discussed in public because Trump himself has made a big fuss about the home search.
Although Trump calls on social media to publish the court papers, Trump’s legal team has not yet taken an official position on the matter. Trump has the opportunity to demand that the documents be kept secret today, Friday, until 10 p.m. Finnish time.
If Trump does not insist on secrecy, the documents could be published already on the same day.
According to the media, Trump was trying to get a political victory by not raising it, but if he now demanded the documents be classified, it would look suspicious and weaken the Republicans’ claims of an unfounded manhunt. However, CNN reminds us that Trump has a long experience of deliberately delaying legal proceedings.
“What does the president not want made public?”
Los Angeles-based defense attorney and former prosecutor interviewed by the news agency Reuters Joshua Ritter estimates that Trump’s next move will show the direction in which the situation will develop.
According to the statement of the Ministry of Justice, the search warrant was granted on the basis that a crime is suspected “with probable cause”.
– If Trump and his team oppose the publication of the home search warrant, questions about its content will arise. What kind of evidence is presented in the order that the president does not want to be made public, Ritter ponders.
Even if the search warrant is made public, the questions probably won’t stop there. News channel of CBS (you switch to another service) according to sources, the search warrant itself and the FBI’s list of seized items are very general in nature. The Minister of Justice has not asked for anything else to be made public, and Trumpk also seems to refer only to the publication of these on social media.
At least the affidavits, which would reveal the actual grounds and “probable reasons” for the criminal suspicions behind the home search, would still remain secret.