WASHINGTON - A federal judge was to decide as soon as Friday whether to grant the Department of Justice's request to unseal the warrant that authorized the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
Attorney General Merrick Garland declared there was "substantial public interest in this matter," and Trump backed the warrant's "immediate" release.The decision on whether to unseal the records lay with U.S.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the same judge who signed off on the search warrant. The Justice Department had until Friday afternoon to tell the judge whether Trump’s lawyers agree or disagree with the proposal to make it public.In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, "Not only will I not oppose the release of documents ...
I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents." He continued to assail the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago as "unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary."PREVIOUS: Donald Trump calls for ‘immediate’ release of Mar-a-Lago warrantTrump himself has been given at least some of the records the government was seeking to unseal, but he and his lawyers have declined, so far, to make them public.The Justice Department's request is striking because such documents traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation.