The U.S. Justice Department opposes unsealing the affidavit that prosecutors used to obtain a federal judge's approval to search former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where they seized classified documents, it said Monday.
"If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government's ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps," prosecutors wrote in their filing.
Trump's Republican allies in recent days have ramped up their calls for Attorney General Merrick Garland to unseal the document, which would reveal the evidence that prosecutors showed to demonstrate they had probable cause to believe crimes were committed at Trump's home – the standard they had to meet to secure the search warrant.
Trump claimed on Monday that the FBI took his three passports during a raid of his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida last week as they searched his property for classified documents.
"In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. "This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”
In addition to the passports Trump claimed were taken, the FBI seized boxes of documents – many of them classified – including records marked highly sensitive.
According to a search warrant released last Friday, the former president is under investigation for possibly violating the U.S. Espionage Act, in addition to several other crimes.
"The country is in a very dangerous position," Trump said in an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday. "There is tremendous anger, like I've never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one-years of scams and witch hunts, and now this."
"There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States," Trump continued. "And there is tremendous anger in the country – at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times."
It is not clear why the FBI may have taken Trump's passports or why he apparently has three of them. Experts say it is possible that he could have had a second special issuance passport as a former U.S. president.
On Friday, at the Justice Department's request, a federal court in south Florida unsealed the search warrant and several accompanying legal documents that showed that FBI agents carted away 11 sets of classified records from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Some of the records seized were labeled as "top secret" – the highest level of classification reserved for the most closely held U.S. national security information.
Such documents usually are typically kept in special government facilities because disclosure could damage national security
The Justice Department on Monday cited this as another reason to keep the affidavit sealed, saying the probe involves "highly classified materials."
The agency said it would not oppose the release of other sealed documents tied to the raid, such as cover sheets and the government's motion to seal.
The decision by Garland to unseal the warrant was highly unusual, given the Justice Department's policy not to comment on pending investigations.
On the same day Garland announced his decision to seek to unseal the warrant, an armed man with right-wing views tried to breach an FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was later shot dead by police following a car chase.
Prosecutors on Monday cited the recent violence and increasing threats against the FBI as another reason not to release the affidavit.
"Information about witnesses is particularly sensitive given the high-profile nature of this matter and the risk that the revelation of witness identities would impact their willingness to cooperate with the investigation," they wrote.
Also on Monday, the Justice Department said a Pennsylvania man was arrested on charges of making threats on the social media service Gab against FBI agents. Adam Bies, 46, was taken into custody on Friday in connection with the social media posts, the Justice Department said.
