Judging Freedom - Trump Affidavit Will Be Partly Unsealed
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Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, August 18,
2022. It's about six minutes after three in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United
States. Just about 15 minutes ago in the
federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida. U.S. Magistrate Judge Reinhart, that's the judge
that signed the search warrant authorizing the FBI to search the home of former President Donald
Trump, this is now about two weeks ago, ruled that part of the affidavit submitted by the FBI, which was given to induce him to sign
the search warrant, will be revealed. This is a surprise to me and to most of us who have lived
or still do live in this part of the legal community. The judge ruled that the affidavit, which is long
and carefully drawn, can have the parts of it redacted where people are identified.
Now, you run a danger, of course, in doing that, that there are other identifiers in there without
using the person's proper name. Anyway, he has given the Department
of Justice a week to either appeal his decision or to produce a redacted version of the affidavit.
The FBI has said that a redacted version of the affidavit will be meaningless because they need
to redact far more than 50% of it. Right now, this is a tug of war,
not involving the media. Remember, this is the media versus the DOJ. Trump, who does not have
a lawyer in this case yet, inexplicably, but he doesn't, Trump was not in a position to file any
documents in the case, though one of his in-house lawyers was in the courtroom. So this was the media versus
the DOJ. Now it's a tug of war, the judge and the DOJ, as they sit down and agree what is to be
redacted. If the DOJ does not agree with what the judge thinks should be redacted, if he wants more
to be revealed than what the DOJ wants, he's not just going to reveal
it on his own. He's going to let the DOJ appeal. The appeal is very interesting here. This is a
magistrate judge. This is not an Article III judge. An Article III judge has been nominated
by the president, confirmed by the U.S. Senate for life. A magistrate judge is a judge hired by all the other Article
3 judges in that federal district. So the magistrate judge serves for a term of 10 years,
but really at the pleasure of the other judges. What does that mean for our purposes? It means
that the appeal goes to an Article 3 judge, a federal trial judge, who can second-guess everything because the magistrate judge works for a federal trial judge.
So the first appeal is to whichever federal trial judge Judge Reinhart works for.
After that, the appeal is to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.
After that, the appeal is to the Supreme Court of the United States. I doubt very much that this case would reach the Supreme Court of the United States.
I am sure that somewhere along the line, either in Judge Reinhart's chambers with the DOJ there
with him, or in a ruling from the Article III judge, the U.S. District Court judge for whom Judge Reinhart works,
or in a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, we will see
a redacted version of the affidavit. The question is how much will be redacted.
Morris, we get it. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.