documents we have seen and haven t seen and the one today. john, by the time this is all over every person in the united states is going to be an expert on search warrants and how they work, i m making that my goal. there are three primary documents involved in any search warrant, there is the search and seizure warrant itself, there is the receipt for property and then there is the big document we are looking for today the affidavit. let s remind ourselves of what these are. the warrant itself, this is a fairly straightforward three-page document, it s already public, we ve already seen t the most important thing we learned from this document is what crimes doj is investigating. we got the listing of the statutes. 7 id 3, mishandling of defense information, 2071 concealment or destruction of official federal documents and 1519 that s obstruction. now, the second document, receipt for property, also a three-page document. we ve also seen this already, it is public. the most important
looking at for donald trump. but there s also a separate statute that makes it a crime for someone who did not have authorization who possessed documents. i could see that charge, a conspiracy charge if there was an agreement to keep these documents long past the time they should have had them. i can see an aiding and abetting type of theory of complicity here. also in that search warrant we saw a reference to the obstruction statute, 18 usc 1519, which is about concealing documents. anyone who assisted in that could be in trouble. if it simply requires knowledge, a valet who moved one box from this run to that room because donald trump asked him to, that wouldn t be enough. the classification isn t so much what matters as national defense documents, presidential records, government records, knowing that they belong to the united states of america and helping donald trump to illegally retain them. any of those people could be on the hook. barbara and david, you re
basis to go in but the brief that was unredacted says these concerns are particularly compelling in this case and then says, unfortunately, as explained in the affidavit, and then it s blacked out on page 9. but it s clear that the affidavit from this gave compelling reasons for obstruction in this particular case, that it wasn t just an abstract concern. so that is just confirming in this brief and what we surmised from the statutory site in the search warrant that was previously disclosed on section 1519, of the federal criminal statutes, which as i mentioned is the obstruction statute. that is at least one hint. andrew, just picking up on this, on page 6 i ve just noticed it says under witness intimidation, if witnesses identities are exposed they
and it goes through categories, like witness information. so, andrew weissman, when they go through these categories they are explaining why you would not identify witnesses in a potential criminal case while you re still bringing new witnesses in and going through the documents that were finally turned over during the mar-a-lago search. am i correct? yeah, absolutely. and so i think it is commendable that the department and the court has done something that we did in the special counsel investigation, which was really making sure they went through everything to unredact, even this, which is basically a legal brief, to make sure everything that could be revealed is being revealed. and to your point about witness intimidation and obstruction, i found interesting and quickly looking at this, that of course that is one of the reasons we knew it would be identified. we knew that the obstruction statute was charged 1519 as a
0 from the company that powers more businesses than anyone else. call and start saving today. comcast business. powering possibilities. and good day. this is andrea mitchell reports in washington. the affidavit the justice department used to win approval for the fbi s search of mar-a-lago is being released at any moment by order of the justice department approving it by the federal judge magistrate on the case. much of it is likely to be redacted to conceal critical information about sources and methods the government used to persuade the judge there was probable cause for him to of potential crimes to justify the search of the former president s home. the judge ordered the unusual release of the affidavit in part to de bunk the explosion of conspiracy theories about the search. the escalating threats against the fbi and other law enforcement officials. all of this sharpening the country s political divide as president biden escalates his attacks on what he is now criticizing as, q