‘Sobering’: MSNBC Analyst Says DOJ Affidavit Tries to Protect ‘Significant Number of Civilian Witnesses’ from ‘Harm’
MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance said the affidavit used to justify a search of former President Donald Trump’s home shows a “significant” number of civilian witnesses cooperated with federal investigators.
A heavily redacted version of the document was released at noon ET Friday at the order of a federal judge. Much of the document has been blacked out.
On Andrea Mitchell Reports, Vance argued what little was released shows “civilians” cooperated with the classified document investigation into Trump.
“One very interesting tidbit we get from the legal memo that DOJ submitted to unseal the redacted version of the affidavit is what I think is the first effort to quantify the number of cooperating witnesses that DOJ had when they obtained this search warrant,” she said. “They’re talking about the need to protect their witnesses from any sort of potential harm, and they say that there are a significant number of civilian witnesses.”
Vance said it is unclear how many witnesses the Justice Department might be trying to protect.
She added:
But I think it’s important to realize here that DOJ was not just relying on one or two witnesses. Likely this is, as they say, a significant number of civilian witnesses as well as people in law enforcement who need to be protected as this investigation moves forward, and that puts into context what we’re looking at here.
We’re talking about a former president of the United States who’s clearly taken with him when he left office materials, whether they’re classified or not, that could do grave damage to our national security if they’re disclosed in an inappropriate fashion, and not only is that former president resistant to returning those documents, also DOJ has legitimate reasons to believe that there are risk to witnesses who are helping complete this investigation.
Vance called the entire situation a “sobering moment” for the country.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
