How Garland may have hurt the DOJ's fight to keep Trump raid affidavit sealed

McCarthy on the precedents set in Trump raid legal battle

Former federal prosecutor and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy unpacks federal judge's orders Thursday on the partial unsealing and redaction of the Trump raid affidavit on "The Story."

Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy broke down how Attorney General Merrick Garland may have hurt the Justice Department's argument to keep the affidavit on the FBI's raid on former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence sealed Thursday on "The Story."

ANDY MCCARTHY: Yeah. I think, Gillian, that, you know, he gets it kind of coming and going because, you know, if you don't speak, and you just follow the Justice Department's normal protocols, then everybody assumes that you just reject everything that President Trump is saying publicly.

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But you're not saying that because you're the Justice Department, so you don't speak. And what Garland did was he gave a very brief speech. So, he broke from the usual rule of not speaking publicly about ongoing investigations.

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He hurt the Justice Department's litigating position having done that, because they're now trying to say that, you know, this is an ongoing investigation. We need to keep everything under wraps. But the thing he didn't do was address what President Trump was saying publicly.

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And what I think what people were curious about is why do it by search warrant, and why do it now? What was so imperative? What was the emergency?

So, he didn't address the things that people are actually interested in, but he left himself in a position of having departed from the Justice Department's usual silence about a pending investigation. So, I don't see that there was upside in it for him.

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Andy McCarthy on Trump affidavit battle: There is a long-term and short-term problem

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This article was written by Fox News staff.