Donald Trump’s former attorney, Alan Dershowitz, said Friday that the redacted affidavit released by the Justice Department supporting the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago entry provides enough evidence to indict the former president.
In an interview with NewsweekDershowitz said, “It seems like there would be enough for an indictment, but as probable cause, an indictment is easy to come by.” He said prosecutors could simply point to materials found at Trump’s residence.
Today, Friday, Judge Bruce Reinhart released a redacted version of the affidavit: He revealed that the Justice Department had been investigating Trump’s mishandling of presidential documents since May 2021, when the National Archives and Records Administration contacted for the first time with the envelope the lack of documents.
The affidavit revealed that of the hundreds of documents at Mar-a-Lago, 25 were marked “top secret,” 92 “secret” and 67 “confidential.”
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“I suspect there has been some cherry picking and some cherry picking,” the attorney said, nonetheless. “The criterion does not seem to be only protecting the names of the sources.
Prosecutors explained the blackouts by arguing that “the government must protect the identity of witnesses at this stage of the investigation to ensure their safety.”
While probable cause for the search warrant was reported to be largely based on an informant, the documents revealed that the Justice Department has worked with “a significant number of civilian witnesses.”
Dershowitz said that for the Justice Department to go after a former president or a future presidential candidate, an indictment would have to meet “the Nixon standard,” meaning the charges would have to be “watertight and serious.”
The affidavit revealed that investigators believed there was probable cause that “evidence of obstruction will be found.” [de la justicia] at Mar-a-Lago and that “additional documents containing classified NDI” could be found at the former president’s private facility.
