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DOJ reveals redacted affidavit justifying Trump Mar-a-Lago raid

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DOJ reveals redacted affidavit justifying Trump Mar-a-Lago raid

The Justice Division on Friday revealed a closely redacted copy of the affidavit used to acquire a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s house Mar-a-Lago.

The FBI had possible trigger to consider that data containing categorized nationwide protection info can be discovered on the Palm Seaside, Florida, residence, in keeping with an agent who wrote the 32-page affidavit.

“There may be additionally possible trigger to consider that proof of obstruction shall be discovered” at Trump’s house, learn an unredacted portion of the affidavit.

A federal decide had ordered the important thing doc’s launch over the objections of the DOJ, which argued it comprises extremely delicate info concerning the ongoing legal investigation into Trump. U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Bruce Reinhart accepted the DOJ’s proposed redactions to the affidavit sooner or later earlier than it was made public.

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Click on right here or scroll right down to learn the closely redacted affidavit.

“The federal government is conducting a legal investigation in regards to the improper removing and storage of categorized info in unauthorized areas, in addition to the illegal concealment and removing of presidency data,” the FBI agent, whose identify was blacked out, wrote within the affidavit’s first line.

The agent then wrote that the probe started due to a referral from the Nationwide Archives and Data Administration in February, after NARA acquired 15 bins of data from Trump’s residence in Florida. By legislation, presidential data have to be turned over to the Nationwide Archives when a president exits workplace.

The FBI discovered that in these bins had been paperwork that bore classification markings, and included data referring to nationwide protection info, which had been saved at Mar-a-Lago in an unsecured location.

The 15 bins included 184 particular paperwork marked categorized, 67 of which had been marked “confidential,” 92 marked “secret,” and 25 paperwork marked “prime secret,” in keeping with the affidavit.

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“Based mostly upon this investigation, I don’t consider that any areas inside the PREMISES have been approved for the storage of categorized info no less than for the reason that finish of FPOTUS ‘s Presidential Administration on January 20, 2021,” the agent wrote within the affidavit.

Of the 32 pages of the affidavit, 21 pages are virtually completely or considerably blacked out.

The search warrant itself was revealed voluntarily by the DOJ lower than every week after the Aug. 8 raid. The warrant indicated that FBI brokers had been on the lookout for supplies exhibiting violations of legal guidelines towards obstruction of justice and the removing of official data, in addition to the U.S. Espionage Act. 

The FBI took no less than 20 bins of things within the August raid, together with quite a few units of extremely categorized paperwork, in keeping with a property receipt that was additionally made public by the DOJ.

In a social media put up after the redacted affidavit was launched, Trump accused the FBI and DOJ of “public relations subterfuge” by the truth that the phrase “Nuclear” didn’t seem within the doc — although he additionally famous that it was “closely redacted!!!” The affidavit didn’t element the precise content material of paperwork it anticipated to seek out.

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Trump additionally lashed out at Reinhart, arguing that he ought to have recused himself from this matter as a result of he had beforehand recused himself from one other case involving Trump. The rationale for that recusal was not clear, information retailers reported, however Trump claimed it was “primarily based on his animosity and hatred of your favourite President, me.”

The federal government argued final week towards releasing the affidavit, even in a redacted kind.

“The redactions essential to mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation can be so in depth as to render the remaining unsealed textual content devoid of significant content material,” learn a court docket submitting from Jay Bratt, head of the Counterintelligence and Export Management Part of the DOJ’s Nationwide Safety Division.

Bratt additionally argued that the affidavit “would function a roadmap to the federal government’s ongoing investigation” if disclosed.

Reinhart disagreed, and ordered the federal government to suggest redactions to U.S. District Courtroom in West Palm Seaside, Florida, by Thursday. The decide accepted the DOJ’s redactions later that day.

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The federal government mentioned final week that the Mar-a-Lago raid is a part of a probe that “implicates nationwide safety” and remains to be in its “early phases.”

Trump, who first revealed the FBI’s search of his Florida residence, has solid himself because the sufferer of a political assault by the Biden administration that was carried out towards the presumptive Republican frontrunner within the 2024 presidential race.

The previous president on Monday sued the federal government, asking a federal decide to dam the DOJ from poring over the paperwork seized from Mar-a-Lago till a court-appointed third celebration critiques them.

“The political Hacks and Thugs had no proper below the Presidential Data Act to storm Mar-a-Lago and steal every thing in sight, together with Passports and privileged paperwork,” Trump mentioned in a social media put up earlier Friday morning.

Learn the redacted affidavit:

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

This article is also a weekly newsletter. Sign up for Race/Related here.

In the wake of the devastating fires in Los Angeles, many people are referencing the work of the science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Butler, who grew up in Pasadena, was the daughter of a housekeeper and a father who was a shoeshiner. She went on to become the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur “genius” award. Her book “Parable of the Sower,” published in 1993, paints a picture of a California ravished by the effects of climate change, income inequality, political divisiveness and centers on a young woman struggling to find faith and the community to build a new future.

The phrase “Octavia tried to tell us,” which began to gain momentum in 2020 during the pandemic, has once again resurfaced, in part because Butler studied science and history so deeply. The accuracy with which she read the shifts in America can, at times, seem eerily prophetic. One entry in “Parable of the Sower,” which is structured as a journal, dated on “February 1, 2025” begins, “We had a fire today.” It goes on to describe how the fear of fires plague Robledo, a fictional town that feels much like Altadena, a haven for the Black middle class for more than 50 years, where Butler lived in the late ’90s.

In 2000, Butler wrote a piece for Essence magazine titled, “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.” She wrote: “Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes.”

In one of the last interviews before she died in 2006, Butler spoke to Democracy Now!, an independent news organization, about how she’d been worried about how climate could devastate California . “I wrote the two ‘Parable’ books back in the ’90s,” she said, referring to “Parable of the Sower” and her 1998 follow-up, “Parable of the Talents.” These books, she explained, were about what happens when “we don’t trouble to correct some of the problems we are brewing for ourselves right now. Global warming is one of those problems. And I was aware of it back in the ’80s.” She continued: “A lot of people were seeing it as politics, as something very iffy, as something they could ignore because nothing was going to come of it tomorrow.

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Lynell George, a writer who lives in Los Angeles and the author of a book on Butler and her creative journey, has spent many years studying Butler’s archives at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. In 2022, we asked George to write about how Butler predicted the world we live in. As so many people are turning to her work during this time of tremendous loss, we wanted to share that story with our readers again.

In her piece, “The Visions of Octavia Butler,” George wrote: “In ‘Parable of the Sower,’ Earth is tipping toward climate disaster: A catastrophic drought has led to social upheaval and violent class wars. Butler, a fervent environmentalist, researched the novel by clipping articles, taking notes and monitoring rain and growth in her Southern California neighborhood. She couldn’t help but wonder, she later wrote, what ‘environmental and economic stupidities’ might lead to. She often called herself a pessimist, but threaded into the bleak landscape of her ‘Parable’ novels are strands of glimmering hope — ribbons of blue at the edges of the fictional fiery skies.”

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Parts of Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved inside the US Capitol because of freezing weather that is forecast for Washington on Monday.

It will be the first time since 1985 — when a severe cold snap hit Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration — that a swearing-in ceremony has been moved indoors.

The president-elect announced the revised plans in a Truth Social post on Friday, saying he had ordered the inauguration address, as well as prayers and speeches, to be delivered inside the Capitol Rotunda as Reagan had done four decades ago.

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“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump wrote.

“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th.”

The National Weather Service said an “enhanced winter storm threat” was in place for Sunday afternoon and evening, and predicted about 2-4 inches of snow would fall, with a “reasonable worst case” scenario of 4-8 inches.

“Bitterly cold wind chills” were expected Monday to Wednesday, the NWS said on Friday, as it forecast temperatures to be “well below freezing” during this period.

The agency is forecasting a high of about -5C at 11am local time on Monday, when the swearing-in ceremony is due to begin, with a wind-chill of -13C that it warned could result in hypothermia or frostbite without appropriate attire.

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Trump said the Capital One Arena — with a capacity of 20,000 — will be opened on Monday for a live viewing of the ceremony, and that he would visit the venue, located about 2km from the Capitol, following his swearing-in.

Other events, including a victory rally at the arena are scheduled for Sunday and inaugural balls set for Monday night, will continue as scheduled, the president-elect said.

Trump encouraged supporters who choose to come to “dress warmly!”

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

Security contractor Zachary Young alleges CNN defamed him in a November 2021 report, shown above, about Afghans’ fears of exorbitant charges from people offering to get them out of the country after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. CNN says it will defend the report in a trial set to start in a Florida court Monday.

CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR


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CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR

A Florida jury has found that CNN defamed a security consultant in presenting a story that suggested he was charging “exorbitant prices” to evacuate people desperate to get out of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021.

Jurors found the network should pay $5 million to U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young for lost finances and suffering, and said he was eligible for more in punitive damages. The proceedings turned immediately to expert testimony as both sides presented cases over what punitive damages would be appropriate.

Young sat impassively as the jury’s verdict was read aloud in court.

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The November 2021 story focused on concerns from Afghans that they faced extraordinary costs in a “black market” to secure safe passage for relatives and friends, especially those who had worked with U.S. agencies and organizations and therefore were fearful of the takeover by the Taliban.

Young was the only security contractor named in the piece, however, and a caption warned he offered “no guarantee of safety or success.”

He was not directly accused of operating in a black market in the television or written versions of the story, but the words did appear in the caption in the TV version of the story.

On the witness stand during the trial, CNN editors defended use of the term “black market,” saying it meant operating in unregulated circumstances, such as the chaos of Kabul at that time; Young’s lawyers noted that dictionaries consistently ascribe illegality to the term.

The jury found CNN liable for defamation per se, meaning it had harmed Young by the very words it chose, and for defamation by implication, that is, it had harmed his reputation by the implications that a reasonable reader or viewer might take from the story.

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Young’s lead attorney, Devin Freedman, had argued that CNN willfully damaged Young, costing him millions of dollars and causing irreparable personal harm, and that the network should be punished for it. Toward the very end of his closing arguments, Freedman told the jury they had the rare opportunity to hold the press accountable.

“Media executives around the country are sitting by the phones to see what you do,” Freedman told jurors. “CNN’s executives are waiting in their boardrooms in Georgia to see what you decide. Make the phones ring in Georgia. Send a message.”

After the initial verdict, Judge William S. Henry instructed jurors that they could only find punitive damages against CNN for its actions in the case at hand, not over any other story or issue.

Even so, over the course of the lawsuit, lawyers for Zachary Young acquired internal correspondence showing several editors within CNN held reservations about the solidity of the reporting behind the story.

For example, Fuzz Hogan, a senior director of standards for CNN, acknowledged in testimony under oath that he had approved a “three-quarters true” story. Another editor, Tom Lumley, had said in an internal message that the piece was “80 percent emotion.” On the stand, Lumley said that it still wasn’t his favorite story, but on the grounds of the craft of story-telling involved.

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During the trial, CNN’s lawyers had contended the story’s reporting holds up as fair and true under scrutiny. CNN correspondent Alexander Marquardt had presented viewers with a LinkedIn message from Young saying it would cost $75,000 to evacuate a vehicle with five or six passengers from Kabul to Pakistan. Young said he worked with corporate sponsors, including Bloomberg and Audible, rather than individuals.

On the stand, Young acknowledged that he took a 65% profit margin from the fees he charged, and took inquiries from individuals. He also curtly and coarsely brushed off people inquiring about help who could not afford his fees.

Other groups involving U.S. veterans and non-governmental organizations sought to get Afghans out without such profits, as a former major general testifying on Young’s behalf acknowledged. The retired major general, James V. Young Jr. (not related to Zach Young), said he charged donors for the cost.

CNN’s legal team, led by David Axelrod (the lawyer is not related to the Obama White House official and CNN analyst of the same name) had told jurors they should rely on their own “common sense.”

Axelrod had been able to press Young to concede that some of his claims to potential clients were not borne out by facts; Young had not in fact evacuated people from Afghanistan by air. Nor was he in constant contact with journalists, as claimed.

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In his closing argument, Freedman presented Young as a swashbuckling former CIA operative to explain his curtness in messages to desperate people trying to help people.

On the witness stand, however, Young emerged as emotionally vulnerable himself, weeping during testimony. He recounted that, after the story ran, he became despondent, depressed, alienated from intimacy with his wife, cut off from friends and family members. HIs attorney cited “deep and lasting wounds” from the piece.

The piece was presented initially on CNN’s The Lead With Jake Tapper, and a fuller written version subsequently posted on CNN’s website. A few months later, shortly after Young’s legal team threatened legal actions, a substitute anchor apologized to Young on the air for use of the term “black market” in the story, and said it did not apply to him.

Freedman, Young’s attorney, called the apology insufficient.

“This is what makes this case historic: punitive damages,” Freedman told jurors. “A media company has to face an American jury with the power to punish. That is not a frequent event. Do you believe that CNN should be punished? Do you believe they should send a message to other media companies to avoid this misconduct?”

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This story will be updated after the jury decides on what, if any, punitive damages to award Young.

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