Former President Donald Trump mocked the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) heavily redacted search warrant affidavit that was used as the basis for the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
DOJ released the affidavit on Friday after Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the search warrant, ordered the underlying affidavit to be unsealed on Thursday. However, the released affidavit was heavily redacted after Judge Reinhart found the federal government provided “good cause” to keep portions of the document under seal.
The redactions were put in place “in order to protect the safety of multiple civilian witnesses,” according to a DOJ filing.
Trump mocked the highly redacted document in a statement issued several hours after the affidavit was released.
“They missed a page,” Trump said, along with an edited version of the document that redacted all but four words: Make America Great Again.
45: They missed a page! pic.twitter.com/f3xiKbwfuj
— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) August 26, 2022
In a statement issued earlier on Friday, Trump described the heavily redacted document as a “total public relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ.” Trump said:
Affidavit heavily redacted!!! Nothing mentioned on ‘Nuclear,’ a total public relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ, or our close working relationship regarding document turnover – WE GAVE THEM MUCH. Judge Bruce Reinhart should NEVER have allowed the Break-In of my home.
“He recused himself two months ago from one of my cases based on his animosity and hatred of your favorite President, me. What changed? Why hasn’t he recused himself on this case? Obama must be very proud of him right now,” Trump continued.
Trump is not the only one who took to social media and mocked the heavily redacted affidavit.
“Well this really clears things up,” Donald Trump Jr. posted along with screenshots of three pages of redacted text from the affidavit.
Well this really clears things up. pic.twitter.com/6S2FxIQtSi
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 26, 2022
Other content creators posted edits of the redacted document, including one with the “e” in President Joe Biden’s campaign logo replaced by redacted lines.
Biden new logo just dropped pic.twitter.com/VYQALNplAa
— The Right To Bear Memes (@grandoldmemes) August 26, 2022
— The Right To Bear Memes (@grandoldmemes) August 26, 2022
https://t.co/x1FrQxaiy5 pic.twitter.com/XPm4X0Y95H
— The Right To Bear Memes (@grandoldmemes) August 26, 2022
The affidavit stated that DOJ believed Trump could have improperly stored classified documents at Mar-a-Lago based on the fact that Trump voluntarily provided 15 boxes of material to the federal government.
“Further, there is probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified NDI or that are Presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain at the PREMISES,” the affidavit stated.
Story cited here.
