WASHINGTON –
Republicans stepped up calls Sunday for the release of an FBI affidavit showing the underlying basis for seizing documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
A search warrant issued last week after the unprecedented raid showed that Trump had 11 sets of classified documents at his home and that the Justice Department had probable cause to conduct the search based on possible violations of the Espionage Act.
Republicans are calling for the disclosure of more detailed information that convinced a federal judge to issue a search warrant that could reveal sources of information and details about the nature of the documents and other classified information. The unsealing of such affidavits is highly unusual and requires the approval of a federal judge.
“I think releasing the affidavit would help, at least confirm that there was justification for this attack,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“The Justice Department has to ‘show that this wasn’t just a fishing expedition, that they had a good reason to go and do this, that they exhausted all other means,'” Rounds said. “And if they can’t do that, then we have a serious problem.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congressman Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN on Sunday that the Biden administration should provide more details about what led to the attack.
“Congress is saying, ‘Show us. We want to know what the FBI told them? What did they find?” Turner said.
Congressman Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, did not address the issue with the affidavit on Sunday.
He said it was “very troubling” that Trump continued to hold the classified documents after the Justice Department requested their return. “It seems intentional on the part of the president to keep these documents after the government asked for them back,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
(Reporting by David Lauder; Editing by Heather Timmons and Lisa Shoemaker)
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