Documents at Trump's home 'could harm intelligence sources'

WASHINGTON • The Justice Department's (DOJ) search of former president Donald Trump's Florida home was spurred by the discovery that he had held on to a trove of highly classified material that included documents related to the use of "clandestine human sources" in intelligence gathering, according to a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant.

The portions of the affidavit made public on Friday describe the DOJ's months-long push to recover sensitive materials taken from the White House by a former president who viewed state documents as his private property and now faces a department investigating the possibility he illegally obstructed those efforts.

The partial release of the 38-page affidavit was the latest in a remarkable succession of developments in the inquiry into how hundreds of pages of documents with classified markings ended up at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence after he left the White House, in apparent violation of the law requiring all presidential materials to be turned over to the National Archives.

The filing also documents in exhaustive detail efforts by the archives and DOJ to claw back the material in Mr Trump's possession without resorting to a search that would, inevitably, create a powerful political backlash from the former president and his supporters.

The heavily redacted affidavit was unsealed more than two weeks after FBI agents descended on Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and private club with a court-authorised search warrant, carting off additional material marked as classified, citing possible violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice statutes.

There was "probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found" at Mr Trump's house, prosecutors wrote in the affidavit requesting the search. The redacted document did not offer details of what the possible obstruction might be, but the mention raised the possibility that the former president could face considerable legal peril.

Highlighting concern among officials that Mr Trump or his followers could try to interfere with the probe, the DOJ said it requested extensive redactions of the affidavit in part to protect "a significant number of civilian witnesses" with knowledge of Mr Trump's actions.

The Aug 5 affidavit also noted that the FBI had "not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation".

Under orders from the judge in the case, Mr Bruce Reinhart, the DOJ had proposed extensive redactions to the affidavit in an effort to shield witnesses from intimidation or retribution. The government did so to protect the broader integrity of its inquiry into whether Mr Trump had violated the law by wilfully retaining national security records.

NYTIMES