It seemed as if we were finally getting at least a teeny, tiny victory for governmental transparency on Thursday when Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered that the Justice Department begin to prepare the search warrant affidavit in the raid of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate to be released to the general public.
However, this isn’t the victory a lot of folks thought it was going to be. Why? Well, the version that we would all be allowed to see would be heavily redacted, thus much of the most important information contained in the document would still be hidden from the eyes of the public.
It’s likely Reinhart’s ruling was made because he knew this and wasn’t worried about anything incriminating being released for all to see.
According to TheBlaze, the government has made the case that this document should remain sealed in order to preserve the integrity of the FBI’s current investigation. However, Reinhart disagreed, going on to suggest the high-profile nature of the case suggested that public interest might just outweigh the interests of the Justice Department.
“I find that on the present record the Government has not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed,” Reinhart said in the order.
The judge then went on to provide the government with a deadline of next Thursday to file with his court “its proposed redactions along with a legal memorandum setting forth the justification for the proposed redactions.”
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon made an appearance on Fox News where she explained her belief that the affidavit is never really going to be seen by the general public.
“I think you are going to see virtually nothing after the redactions are presented to the judge,” she stated during her interview. “I think that the judge will take a look and see whether he agrees with the redactions or not, and then there will be some back and forth.
“Ultimately though, what we are seeing here is not some sort of outrageous change of behavior by the DOJ,” the attorney went on to explain. “This is actually their existing way that they deal with requests like this. They typically stonewall, they typically hold all the cards. They never want to show a target or a defendant what they have. And they are very rarely held accountable, including by magistrate judges.”
Dhillion then said that in cases that concern national security, which is the category the case involving Trump falls into — the search warrant affidavit is “restricted” to the defendant and their counsel.
Here’s more from TheBlaze:
“Ultimately though, what we are seeing here is not some sort of outrageous change of behavior by the DOJ,” she explained. “This is actually their existing way that they deal with requests like this. They typically stonewall, they typically hold all the cards. They never want to show a target or a defendant what they have. And they are very rarely held accountable, including by magistrate judges.”
The government said in a court filing this week:
The government has carefully considered whether the affidavit can be released subject to redactions. For the reasons discussed below, the redactions necessary to mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive as to render the remaining unsealed text devoid of meaningful content, and the release of such a redacted version would not serve any public interest.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference last week that the DOJ will speak through court filings.
Transparency is a dirty word to progressives working in the government. Many of the individuals who are in positions of power within Congress and the various agencies of our government are working toward radical change in the foundational structure of our country.
Much of this work is being done to bring about a socialist-style nation in the United States. Since the vast majority of Americans are not on board with such a system, progressives do their work in the dark, hidden from the public eye. They don’t want to see what they are doing brought to the light.
And that’s why you’re seeing this affidavit being carefully covered up with redactions. The left does not want you to know for a fact that this raid was a politically motivated attack.
This story syndicated with permission from michael, Author at Trending Politics
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