Affidavit: ‘National Security’ NOT Cited by DOJ Among Reasons for Redactions

The Department of Justice (DOJ) did not cite national security as one of the reasons for redacting information in the affidavit for the Mar-a-Lago raid, which was released on Friday.

In addition to releasing the redacted affidavit, Judge Bruce Reinhart also released the government’s legal memorandum explaining the reasons for the redactions in the affidavit.

The government’s “five categories of information that must remain under seal in order to protect the safety of multiple civilian witnesses” did not include national security:

The categories, described further below, are (1) information from a broad range of civilian witnesses who may be subject to “witness intimidation or retaliation,” D.E. 80 at 9; (2) information regarding investigative avenues and techniques that could provide a roadmap for potential ways to obstruct the investigation, id. at 9-10; (3) information whose disclosure is prohibited under Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (“Rule 6(e)”), such as grand jury subpoenas, testimony, and related material, id. at 10; (4) information whose disclosure could risk the safety of law enforcement personnel, id. at 9; and (5) information _whose disclosure could harm “legitimate privacy interests” of third parties.

The Washington Post had reported earlier this month that “nuclear documents” might be among the materials the DOJ sought and seized at Mar-a-Lago, raising the stakes.

The intense public interest in the affidavit caused the PACER website to crash.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.