2:02
- ABC News
- Donald Trump
- August 18, 2022
Portions of Trump search affidavit may be unsealed
News organizations argue releasing the affidavit is in the public interest.
The redacted copy of the search warrant released last Friday sent shockwaves through Washington, as it revealed the Justice Department was investigating the potential violation of at least three separate criminal statutes in its search of Mar a Lago, including obstruction of justice and one crime under the Espionage Act.
A property receipt accompanying the warrant shows agents seized 11 boxes of documents of various classifications, including one set referring to \"classified/TS/SCI documents\" (the acronym stands for top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information that not everyone with even top-secret clearance can view) and four other sets of top-secret documents.
The documents were discovered by authorities after a lawyer for Trump signed a statement in June to the FBI affirming that all classified documents on the premises had been handed over to investigators, sources confirmed to ABC News.
Trump's team has yet to take court action despite publicly trying to pressure the Justice Department to release the full affidavit.
Christina Bobb, who is on Trump's legal team, said they had no plans to file anything or speak publicly, but told reporters she came to watch the hearing.
Trump in recent days has called for the \"immediate release\" of the affidavit while leveling various attacks at the FBI and Justice Department, while also demanding over his social media website that the documents be returned to him. But Trump's legal team has yet to take any sort of legal action on either front in response to the search.
Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin are among multiple other witnesses interviewed by the FBI as part of its investigation, ABC News confirmed Tuesday, with sources saying both sat with investigators sometime in the spring. But there's no indication that the Justice Department's filing referencing officials' hopes of protecting witnesses who testified in the investigation was a direct reference to Cipollone or Philbin.
ABC News' John Santucci contributed to this report.
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