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Trump calls for release of ‘completely unredacted’ affidavit sanctioning FBI raid amid passport fiasco

August 16, 2022 | | Print Article

Former President Donald Trump has called for the immediate release of the “completely unredacted” affidavit that sanctioned the unprecedented FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home after the Department of Justice opposed requests to unseal the document.

“There remain compelling reasons, including to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security, that support keeping the affidavit sealed,” wrote federal prosecutors in a filing in U.S. District Court in Florida, according to NBC News.

In a statement posted Monday on Truth Social, Trump announced the request ‘in the interest of transparency’ while furiously denouncing the “horrible and shocking break-in” of his home.

He wrote: “There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!), by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of “Justice” but, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN. Also, the Judge on this case should recuse!”

The DOJ also returned three passports belonging to Trump after they were seized by agents, according to NBC News, which said the FBI “acknowledged it had had the passports the same day Trump said on his social media platform that FBI agents who conducted the search on Aug. 8 took them.”

NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell reported the development in an artfully worded tweet: “A Department of Justice official tells me passports belonging to former Pres. Trump are NOT in the possession of the FBI and have been returned.”

Trump posted on Truth Social earlier Monday: “Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”

This prompted CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell to claim the bureau did not have the passports, citing “a DOJ official.”

O’Donnell’s tweet prompted a reply from Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich who tweeted: “This is how Fake News works, folks. Biden admin actively feeds half truths & lies that the media willingly amplifies—advancing a partisan narrative to attack Trump.”

He included a copy of a message from the DOJ National Security Division’s Jay Bratt acknowledging that two expired passports and an active diplomatic passport were taken.

Budowich also shared tweets from the likes of disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok, David Frum, the senior editor at The Atlantic, and U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill, insisting that Trump was lying about the passports being seized.

On Sunday, the former president “respectfully” requested that the DOJ return documents seized by FBI agents that were protected by attorney-client or executive privilege included in the 27 boxes of material seized.

“Oh great! It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged ‘attorney-client’ material, and also ‘executive’ privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!” he added.

Tom Tillison
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