continuing to do to bring a measure of justice in this situation. joyce, the former acting u.s. solicitor general, former law clerk for justice stephen breyer. this affidavit being released as was just pointed out is not unprecedented but unusual, rare. it will include all these redactions which in this political climate will certainly lead to more conspiracy theories and more attacks from trump world. yes, andrea. that s why i think this document i ve been spending the last few minutes quietly reading it, the first document. we don t have the affidavit but we have the justice department s rationale for why they are unsealing and proposing redactions of this affidavit. it is a really sober, careful document i think done precisely because that is the way the department traditionally does
8th, 2022 reading between the lines, i wonder if this is not something related to the revelation that there is perhaps surveillance footage that the fbi looked at and saw perhaps there was something going on with this room. there is a lot going on here but at bottom this was an order to leave the materials as they were and i think it goes to the question of obstruction. pick it up there, paul, in terms of the whole question of obstruction, which is one of the three potential crimes that they were investigating in the affidavit. it is an extraordinary allegation, andrea. and in the judge s order, allowing that parts of this affidavit be disclosed he reminded everyone that was one of his findings of probable cause. it is here in the affidavit. the judge reaffirmed that in his order allowing certain portions of this affidavit to be exposed,
much in conflict with what he and his associates have been arguing publicly over these last three weeks, andrea. joyce vance is a former prosecutor. where does it go now? well, that s exactly the point of this entire exercise. this is all about making sure that doj can move forward. one very interesting tidbit we get from the legal memo that doj submitted to unseal the redacted version of the affidavit is what i think, andrea, is the first effort to quantify the number of cooperating witnesses that doj had when they obtained this search warrant. they re talking about the need to protect their witnesses from any sort of potential harm, and they say that there are a significant number of civilian witnesses. so we don t know, is that five? is that ten? but i think it s important to realize here that doj was not
russians that this person even existed, which could compromise not only all of the of his colleagues as well as relatives. his or her. melissa murray nyu law professor joining us now. what you are reading into this on a legal basis for proceeding with this search of mar-a-lago? andrea, you really do have to read between the lines here. there are so many redactions here for obvious reasons to preserve the blueprint for the prosecution if one is to go forward, to preserve the identity of the fbi agents who worked on this as well as any of the operatives who are mentioned here. but what stands out to me is in paragraph 61 where again they speak of this letter from the doj council to the former president s team explaining that the premises at mar-a-lago have not been secured. they aren t secured and they are asking for all of the documents that were moved from the white house to mar-a-lago to be kept where they are and for that location to be left preserved. this i think, which came on
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