The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has unsealed a memo which shows that it feared that the release of the affidavit on which the FBI had raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence could hamper the ongoing investigation.

The DoJ also stated in the memo that redactions have been made to the said affidavit in order to not create any obstruction in the path of the investigation. Redactions have been made to information like details of the grand jury and identities of the witnesses. The memo stated, “Exposure of witnesses’ identities would likely erode their trust in the government’s investigation, and it would almost certainly chill other potential witnesses from · coming forward in this investigation and others.”

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In the memo, the DoJ pointed out that FBI officials who have been part of the raid have already received threats of harm, “threats of violence to identified FBI agents, overall violent threats to FBI personnel, and the armed attack on the FBI office in Cincinnati”.

Trump has made his reactions regarding the release of the affidavit public, saying that its heavily redacted version does not mention that he had kept with himself any information regarding nuclear weapons. Read the statement right here:

Actor George Takei has also weighed in on Trump’s insistence on the release of the affidavit:

In the memo, the DoJ has provided five categories of information that must “Remain Under Seal”: information from civilian witnesses; information on techniques of investigation; information regarding testimonies and grand jury subpoenas; information whose disclosure can cause harm to the investigating officials; and information that could harm the privacy of “third parties”.

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The memo also states that the DoJ wants to release a letter from Trump’s lawyer that was included in the affidavit as an exhibit: “…with the Court’s permission, the government will confer with counsel for the former President as to whether counsel or the former President has any objection to unsealing the letter from counsel included as Exhibit 1 to the affidavit. Absent any such objection, the government supports unsealing the letter.”