Former President Donald Trump may have more to gain politically than legally from the unsealing of the affidavit that led to the FBI search.
The unsealing of the affidavit for the warrant that let the FBI search for allegedly classified documents at Mar-a-Lago may politically benefit former President Donald Trump while simultaneously hindering the ongoing Department of Justice investigation, some legal experts say.
Federal Judge Bruce Reinhart in Florida, the same judge who signed off on the original warrant «personally approved» by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is expected to hear arguments for and against the unsealing on Thursday afternoon. Many media outlets and Trump himself have publicly called for the affidavit’s release, while former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said Thursday that the odds of the contents being unsealed are «slim to none, and slim is fading fast.»
«I think the prosecutors have a powerful argument that the standard, the practice, is that these things are never unsealed,» Kirschner told NBC News Now, adding that such a move «could have a chilling effect on the witnesses who have already come forward and provided information, and might deter other witnesses from coming forward and participating in the investigation.»
Kirschner added that the standard practice is not to unseal these types of documents unless someone is indicted.
