Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law professor emeritus, predicted that Department of Justice lawyers will “cherry-pick” what they want to be redacted when disclosing an affidavit that sought a search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Florida home earlier this month.
Those redactions, Dershowitz said in a recent interview, will be unfavorable for Trump. Because they are unfavorable, the judge in the case will allow the redacted affidavit to be released, he added.
The former criminal defense attorney then predicted that Trump’s lawyers will not be allowed to be present when determining what should be redacted. The reason why is because the former president’s attorneys “would find out the names of informers,” Dershowitz explained.
Reinhart’s Orders
During a hearing last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the Justice Department to submit the affidavit with proposed redactions. Then, he will consider releasing the legal document to the public.“I am inclined to say I am not going to seal the entire affidavit,” Reinhart said during the Aug. 18 hearing. “I find that on the present record the Government has not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed,” the judge added.
The former president and fellow Republicans have called for the affidavit to be released in full, suggesting that it would reveal the Department of Justice’s bias against Trump.
“Trump has made his view clear that the American people should be permitted to see the unredacted affidavit related to the raid and break-in of his home,” wrote Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich on Twitter on Aug. 18. “Today, magistrate Judge Reinhard rejected the DOJ’s cynical attempt to hide the whole affidavit from Americans.”
Budowich said the 45th president believes “no redactions should be necessary and the whole affidavit should be released, given the Democrats’ penchant for using redactions to hide government corruption, just like they did with the Russia hoax.”
More than a week ago, Reinhart issued an order unsealing the FBI search warrant and property receipt, showing that FBI agents took boxes of alleged classified documents from Trump’s home.
According to Reinhart’s order, the Department of Justice must file proposed redactions by Aug. 25 at 12 p.m. If he agrees with the proposed redactions, he will release the document to the public.
