美国国家公共电台 NPR--Deadline looms for DOJ to submit a redacted affidavit on FBI's Mar-a-Lago search

Deadline looms¹ for DOJ to submit a redacted affidavit² on FBI's Mar-a-Lago search

Transcript³

The Justice Department faces a Thursday deadline in federal court in Florida to submit its proposed redactions to the affidavit used to get the warrant for searching ex-President Trump⁴'s Florida home.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Justice Department faces a deadline today in federal court in Florida.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

The government has to submit its proposed redaction to the affidavit used to get the warrant for searching former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and home.

MARTIN: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us with more. Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE⁵: Good morning.

MARTIN: So the affidavit would reveal the justification⁶ for the warrant that was used to search Mar-a-Lago. Is this going to come out today?

LUCAS: Well, that's unclear. It's unclear, actually, whether the public will see this affidavit at all at this point. What we do know is that by noon Eastern today, the Justice Department has to provide the court in Florida with its proposed redactions to this affidavit. The Justice Department doesn't want any of this affidavit made public. It wants to keep the whole thing sealed. It says that the document contains sensitive information about its ongoing⁷ criminal investigation⁸, about government witnesses, about specific investigative steps. And they say that this affidavit is, in essence, a road map to their investigation and that releasing it could undermine that investigation.

So for all those reasons, the government says this affidavit should remain under seal. Media outlets⁹ are fighting in court to try to get it released. They say this case is of enormous public interest, and this investigation has already been made public because we all know about it.

MARTIN: Right. So this decision on whether this is released at all lies with the judge who approved the search warrant in the first place. Any clues as to which way he's leaning on this?

LUCAS: Right. The decision here is up to Magistrate¹⁰ Judge Bruce Reinhart. At a hearing last week, he ordered that the government propose its redactions to the affidavit, basically masking sensitive information. And some thought that that signaled that Reinhart was inclined to release at least a redacted version of the affidavit. But since then, in a written order, Reinhart acknowledged that it may be the case that partial redactions in this instance would be so extensive - think of, like, huge chunks¹¹ of text blacked out - that the document would just become unintelligible¹², and releasing it in redacted form would be meaningless. For now, the Justice Department will give the judge its proposed redactions. He'll take a look and make a call. We do not know at this point, though, how long that will take.

MARTIN: OK, meanwhile, Ryan, as we've been waiting for this decision on this affidavit, more information has come out about an earlier search - right? - what the National Archives found at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, and that includes highly classified documents, right?

LUCAS: That's right. That's right. This comes from a letter the National Archives sent to Trump's attorney, Evan Corcoran, in May. The archives made this letter public this week after a copy of it leaked. But in the letter, the archive stresses that it negotiated with Trump over the course of 2021 about getting presidential records back from Mar-a-Lago. It says that in the boxes that it recovered from the Florida property back in January of 2022, that there were more than 700 pages of classified documents in there. Some of those had the highest level of classification markings, including special access programs.

MARTIN: Why is that so notable, Ryan?

LUCAS: Well, these are some of the most highly guarded secrets in the U.S. government. One former intelligence official told me this is holy grail-type stuff of intelligence collection, things like CIA human intelligence reports, covert¹³ operations stuff. The former official said exposing special access program materials often can put actual lives in danger. The archives makes clear in its letter that the Justice Department and the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies were deeply concerned about the potential damage to national security from the mishandling of these things. This could also help explain why the Justice Department was so concerned when it learned that even more materials remained at Mar-a-Lago and why, ultimately, they decided¹⁴ to conduct a court-authorized search there.

MARTIN: NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thank you.

LUCAS: Thank you.

1 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 affidavit   

n.宣誓书

参考例句：

• I gave an affidavit to the judge about the accident I witnessed.我向法官提交了一份关于我目击的事故的证词。
• The affidavit was formally read to the court.书面证词正式向出席法庭的人宣读了。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

7 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

8 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

9 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 magistrate   

n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官

参考例句：

• The magistrate committed him to prison for a month.法官判处他一个月监禁。
• John was fined 1000 dollars by the magistrate.约翰被地方法官罚款1000美元。

11 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

12 unintelligible   

adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的

参考例句：

• If a computer is given unintelligible data, it returns unintelligible results.如果计算机得到的是难以理解的数据，它给出的也将是难以理解的结果。
• The terms were unintelligible to ordinary folk.这些术语一般人是不懂的。

13 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。