a judge in florida saying there are portions that could be unsealed and giving the doj a week to explain everything that they say needs to be kept secret. but will it be page after page of black redactions? how will we know? we don t know until we see it. that as a justice department lawyer says the affidavit contains, and i quote here, substantial grand jury information and warns releasing it could have a chilling effect on witnesses. but the judge did release several never-before-seen documents today including the motion where prosecutors argue that they needed to keep their search warrant secret because the integrity of the ongoing investigation might be compromised and evidence might be destroyed. there are some more really intriguing clues in one of those documents. more on that in just a moment. but you ve got to wonder just how much the former president actually wants the full affidavit to be released. because his lawyer sitting right there in court today didn t sa
million dollars a day for at least two days following the fbi search. and he s continue to send out dozens of emails and text to supporters. and then there s our cnn exclusive tonight. 18 top trump administration officials saying, the claim from the former president and his allies that he had a so-called standing order to declassify any order he took from the oval office. they say, this is nonsense. he had a standing order, there s the would ve been looking for. that the documents removed from the oval office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them. donald trump issued sweeping declassification orders on multiple occasions. 18 former top trump officials several one senior official calls it, and i am quoting here, bs. that is not my word. another senior official called it total nonsense. former chief of staff john kelly said, another quote, nothing approaching in order that foolish was ever given. look, you cannot just decla
do those specific words create specific legal jeopardy for donald trump? i m john berman with brianna keilar, and judge bruce reinhart released several procedural court documents used to justify the search of mar-a-lago, providing new details and maybe a sharper focus on the president himself as a potential subject of a criminal probe. this is the document that was released and there is specific information in here about willful retention. in other words, they say he knew he had documents and he knew what they were. so this is all part of the argument over whether to release the affidavit justifying the search of mar-a-lago, prosecutors made the case for secrecy because they say evidence might be destroyed, but the judge set in motion the possibility of releasing a redacted version of the affidavit and that process will kick into gear as soon as next week. and ludicrous, ridiculous, bs, those words and phrases coming from some former trump senior officials who are scoffing
search of mar-a-lago. prosecutors made the case for secrecy because evidence might be destroyed, they said, but the judge set in motion the possibility of releasing a redacted version of the affidavit as soon as next week. ludicrous, ridiculous, bs, those words coming from former trump senior officials who dispute the former president s claim that he had, quote, a standing order to declassify documents that he took from the white house. cnn reached out to 18 former top trump administration officials and all of them told us they never heard any such order issued during their time working for donald trump. we re going to have much more on that in just a moment. joining us now is former senior counsel to ken starr, former deputy assistant secretary for policy at the department of homeland security, paul rosen swig. i want to talk about the document released yesterday by judge reinhart which outlines some of the reasons why the fbi wanted to search donald trump s home and one o
as a potential subject of this criminal probe. this is one of the documents right here. and there is specific language in here about willful retention of documents. in other words, they say, he knew he had them and knew what they were. this is all part of the argument over whether it will release the affidavit justifying the search of mar-a-lago. prosecutors made the case for secrecy because they say evidence may be destroyed. but the judge did set in motion the possibility of releasing a redacted version of the affidavit, a process that could get into gear next week. and ludicrous, ridiculous, bs, those words coming from several former trump officials who are scoffing at the former president and his allies arguments that he had a standing order to declassify documents he took from the white house. cnn reached out to 18 officials and all of them told us they never heard any such thing. we ll have more on that in a moment. first, let s bring in katelyn polantz with more on