The redacted document released on Friday, August 26 provided more insight into the evidence that led the FBI to carry out an unprecedented search of  a former president’s home on August 8.

Its release came after a federal judge on Thursday ordered the Department of Justice to release a redacted version that had been submitted to the court.

US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said last week that he believed “there are portions of the affidavit that could be unsealed” and ordered the Department of Justice to submit a redacted version for his review.

“The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records,” read the 38-page affidavit, substantial portions of which were blacked out.

The document stated that the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had received 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s office in January.

“The FBI’s investigation has established that documents bearing classification markings, which appear to contain National Defense Information (NDI), were among the materials,” it read.

The affidavit added that the Department of Justice believed “additional documents that contain classified NDI or that are Presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain” at Trump’s home.

“There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found,” it said, describing the materials as “illegally possessed”.

The Department of Justice had opposed releasing the affidavit, arguing that it was “highly likely to compromise future investigative steps” and the identity of witnesses. But the public and Republicans had asked for the document to be made public, citing “utmost public interest”.

After the redacted affidavit’s release, Trump again rebuked the search of his home, calling it a “total public relations subterfuge” by the FBI and the Justice Department. “Judge Bruce Reinhart should NEVER have allowed the Break-In of my home,” he wrote on his platform Truth Social.

The search of Mar-a-Lago brought about Republican criticism against the FBI and the Department of Justice, with several GOP lawmakers accusing the Biden administration of investigating Trump for political reasons.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland has defended the search, saying earlier this month that he had personally approved it.

The search warrant was released on August 12, revealing that the Department of Justice was investigating the former president for mishandling classified documents. The court records showed the FBI seized some top secret documents from Trump’s home, but they did not provide details about the information they might contain.

“Top secret” is the highest level of classification of US government documents, and US law prohibits making public or mishandling classified documents.

It is not clear whether the investigation will result in charges against Trump, who has suggested on multiple occasions that he may run for president again in 2024.

Mark Warner, the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Friday the investigation into Trump must continue without interference.

It appears, based on the affidavit unsealed this morning, that among the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were some of our most sensitive intelligence – which is one reason the Senate Intelligence Committee has requested, on a bipartisan basis, a damage assessment of any national security threat posed by the mishandling of this information,” Warner said in a statement.

See the link to the original PDF below…

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/mar-a-lago-affidavit-pdf/5cf823c5850b5e30/full.pdf

Speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, the former president spent 86 minutes repeating many of his favorite applause lines, faulting the “radical left” and its “witch hunt” against him.

As massive explosions lit up the sky over Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Trump blamed Russia’s invasion of its neighbor on Biden’s “weakness” and lavished praise on President Vladimir Putin’s intellect.

“As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged,” he said, to rapt applause.

NATO, he said, was “looking the opposite of smart” for hitting Russia with sanctions rather than resolving to “blow (Russia) to pieces — at least psychologically.”

“The problem is not that Putin is smart, which of course he’s smart,” he went on. “But the real problem is that our leaders are so dumb.

After a year largely out of the public eye, Trump’s ecstatic reception left little doubt that the Republican Party remains in thrall to the twice-impeached, single-term president. There were chants of “four more years” from the sea of supporters in red “Make America Great Again” hats, who clapped on cue as Trump railed against “woke tyranny” and “cancel culture.”

The crowd reserved their largest cheers for the 75-year-old headliner’s dismissal of Democrats’ claims to be the party of democracy as “bullshit” — and for his claim that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg “used to come to the White House and kiss my ass.”

There were nods to a possible 2024 run — “we did it twice and we’ll do it again,” he claimed, falsely recasting his 2020 defeat to Biden as a victory — although he left the crowd guessing about whether he will personally challenge Biden to a rematch.

“This week, we will begin to roll out to people on the Apple App store,” said Devin Nunes, CEO of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), parent company of the new app Truth Social.

The former Republican congressman was speaking Sunday on conservative Fox News.

“I think, by the end of March, we’re going to be fully operational — at least within the United States,” added Nunes, who resigned from the US House to lead the Trump group.

Trump has described Truth Social as an alternative to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, all of which banned him following the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.

The former president has been accused of inciting his followers to use force in a bid to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

On Sunday, the App Store was allowing visitors to pre-order Truth Social starting Monday, the Presidents Day holiday in the United States.

Later Sunday, the app was reported as available to some of those who had pre-ordered.

“It’s actually very moving for me to see people that are on the platform that have had their voice canceled,” Nunes said.

‘The Truth Is Coming’, “We want (customers) to tell us what they would like to have on the platform, which is the opposite of some Silicon Valley tech oligarch freak telling people what they want to think and deciding who can or cannot be on the platform,” he said.

Trump and his wife Melania Trump also plan on Monday to offer for sale 10,000 NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, illustrating key moments in the Trump presidency. NFTs are certified digital images that can be bought and sold.

“TRUTH is coming…” congresswoman Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, tweeted Friday, in an allusion to the ominous “Winter is coming” catchphrase of television series “Game of Thrones.”

She posted a screen grab of her message on Truth Beta, the test version of the new site, saying, “I’m so excited to be on TRUTH!”

And Donald Trump Jr. celebrated on Twitter, posting, “Time for some Truth!!!” and including what he said was his father’s first post on Truth Social: “Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!”

TMTG, asked for comment by AFP, did not immediately respond.

The group reportedly has a $1.25 billion treasure chest as it seeks a niche in a crowded conservative social-media marketplace, currently served by platforms such as Gettr, Parler and Gab.

Before being banned by Twitter, Trump had some 89 million followers there and used the platform constantly, both for presidential statements and to attack rivals

Trump, who is 75, has hinted but never definitively said whether he will seek the presidency again.

He is currently under the shadow of multiple investigations and lawsuits, including over his tax filings and his efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.

Speaking at the inquiry hearing organized by the US House of Representatives into the attacks, the police officers on Tuesday, July 27 asked members of the House select committee investigating the events of that day to get to the bottom of the incident.

“You guys are the only ones we’ve got to deal with crimes that occur above us,” Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Officer Daniel Hodges said

“I need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this. If anyone in power coordinated or aided abetted or tried to downplay, tried to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack.”

Before the hearing, Republicans had already pulled all of their appointees to the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blocked two of them for being allies with Trump, leaving only Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. who were selected by Pelosi as the sole republicans.

“The mob of terrorists were coordinating their efforts… shouting ‘heave, ho,’ as they synchronized pushing their weight forward crushing me further against the metal doorframe,” Hodges said.

“A man in front of me grabbed my baton… he bashed me in the head and face with it, rupturing my lip and adding additional injury to my skull.”

MPD Officer Michael Fanone, meanwhile, detailed how he was “electrocuted again and again and again with a taser. I am sure I was screaming, but I don’t think I could hear my own voice.”

The committee members, led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., asked the police for details about who the rioters were, and for what they would like to see the committee accomplish

U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Private First Class Harry Dunn talked about how the attackers hurled the N-word at him. USCP Sergeant Aquilino Gonell meanwhile emphasized that the mob “was not Antifa. It wat not Black Lives Matter. It was not the FBI. It was [Trump’s] supporters that he sent them over to the Capitol that day.”

On what he would like the committee to accomplish, Fanone said;

“While I understand there have been investigations [on] the events of Jan. 6, my understanding is that those have addressed some of the micro-level concerns,” he said.

“We had violent political rhetoric. We had the organization of a rally whose title was ‘Stop the Steal’ and that rally occurred on Jan. 6, which I don’t believe was a coincidence,” he continued. “The circumstances of that rhetoric and those events leads in the direction of our president and other members… of Congress and the Senate.”

Fanone added: “What I am looking for is an investigation into those actions… and also whether there was a collaboration between those members, their staff, and these terrorists.”

USCP Private First Class, Harry Dunn asked the committee not to shy away from finding the political causes of the attack.

“It’s not a secret that it was political. They were literally there to ‘stop the steal,’” Dunn said. “Telling the truth shouldn’t be hard.”

The officers were also harsh on Republicans who are downplaying the violence, which forced hundreds of lawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence into hiding.

“It’s disgraceful that members of our government I believe were responsible for inciting that behavior and then continue to propagate those statements. Things like this was 1776,” Fanone later said. “To me those individuals are representative of the worst that America has to offer. You’re talking about people who claim that they are pro-law enforcement, pro-police, pro-law and order,” Gonell also said. “And yet when they have the chance and the opportunity to do something about it, to hold people accountable, you don’t. You pass the buck like nothing happened.”

Kim was greeted by US President Trump on arrival and later took the stage to announce a ride-share partnership where ex-prisoners are given gift cards so that they can travel to and from interviews.

Kim said: “Everyone wants the community to be safe, and the more opportunity we have and that they have and the support that we help give them, the safer everyone will be.”