CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez suggested on Friday that former President Donald Trump's office was responsible for leaking a search warrant to Breitbart News and other outlets.
Perez did not mention either Breitbart or the former president in his comments about the leak but strongly implied that he believed Trump or someone in his orbit had provided the document.
The warrant authorizing an FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence was provided to Breitbart on Friday before a federal judge in Florida formally unsealed it at the request of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Perez argued that the fact the names of two FBI agents were not redacted from the warrant Breitbart published - but were redacted from the version released later that day - showed the document had come from Trump's team.
CNN Tonight host Laura Coates highlighted threats made against the agents and asked: "First of all, why do people know the names of those two agents? Because it was supposed to have been redacted."
"It was redacted," Perez said. "It was redacted by the court when the document was released."
"However, before it was released by the court, before it was officially released someone – I think we know who – managed to get it to right wing news organizations, and at least one of them published a document in total, including the names of those federal agents who were simply doing their job," he said.
Breitbart, a conservative news outlet, became the target of criticism for publishing the warrant with the names of the two FBI agents unredacted, with some accusing them of "doxxing" the agents.
"They went there to do their job, and then the former president's social media platform pushed out that information, so, now it's everywhere among his supporters," Perez said on Friday.
"And of course, predictably, those people are now having to be protected because there are threats against them," he said. "We knew exactly how this was gonna play and this is exactly what happened."
It is not known at this time how Breitbart News obtained the warrant on Friday and Perez' suggestion is speculation, but he is not alone in suggesting that Trump's team may have been responsible for providing the document to Breitbart.
Tristan Snell, lawyer and founder of the law firm Main Street, tweeted that "Trump appears to leak warrant to Breitbart."
"Anyone doubt that Trump chose to leak out through Breitbart in order to cause this chaos?" tweeted Jason Kint, a media strategist and CEO of Digital Content Next, a trade association that represents digital content companies.
Newsweek has contacted former President Trump's office for comment.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a briefing about the warrant on Thursday that "both the warrant and the FBI property receipt were provided on the day of the search to the former president's counsel, who was on site during the search."
Trump also called for the "immediate release" of documents related to the search at Mar-a-Lago on his Truth Social platform late on Thursday night.
Newsweek has contacted Breitbart for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
