Former President Donald Trump greeted the Friday release of a heavily redacted affidavit used to secure a search warrant for his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month with his usual dose of anger, misdirection and falsehoods.
In a post on Truth Social, his fledgling ― and reportedly floundering ― social media platform, Trump railed against the search and the redacted affidavit, specifically criticizing the judge who signed the document.
He also claimed there was no mention of “nuclear,” seemingly a reference to reports the search was related to documents about nuclear weapons, though there may have been some mention of this in the redacted portions of the document.
“Affidavit heavily redacted!!!” Trump wrote. “Nothing mentioned on ‘Nuclear,’ a total public relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ, or our close working relationship regarding document turnover - WE GAVE THEM MUCH.”
“Judge Bruce Reinhart should NEVER have allowed the Break-In of my home,” Trump continued. “He recused himself two months ago from one of my cases based on his animosity and hatred of your favorite President, me. What changed? Why hasn’t he recused himself on this case? Obama must be very proud of him right now!”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approved the search warrant and has since faced a storm of death threats from Trump supporters.
Despite having publicly called for the affidavit’s release in prior weeks, Trump’s lawyers made no corresponding legal moves to actually do so.
In a Friday appearance on CNN, conservative attorney George Conway predicted that’s because Trump’s legal team would have a hard time defending the allegations contained in the affidavit itself.
“All this affidavit can do is to add more heft and more substance to what we already know about Trump having stolen these documents, which is pretty damning,” he said. “They didn’t actually stand up in court and ask for it because they know that if the whole thing were released, it could contain a damning narrative.”
Conway added that it’s been almost three weeks since the search and Trump’s legal team has failed to articulate a single cogent defense for the former president’s behavior.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated that President Donald Trump appointed Bruce Reinhart. Magistrate judges are appointed by district judges, not the president.