US Justice Dept opposes efforts to unseal Trump search affidavit
Al JazeeraMedia had sought release of affidavit the government submitted when it requested search warrant for Donald Trump’s home. The United States Justice Department has opposed efforts by media organisations to unseal the affidavit that backed the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, saying the document contains sensitive material. “If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps,” prosecutors wrote in their filing. The government’s opposition came in response to court filings by several news organisations, including The Associated Press news agency, seeking to unseal the underlying affidavit the Justice Department submitted when it asked for the warrant to search Trump’s estate earlier this month. A property receipt unsealed on Friday showed the FBI seized 11 sets of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, with some marked not only top secret but also “sensitive compartmented information”, a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets that if revealed publicly could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to US interests.