PALM BEACH, Fla. — Many questions may soon be answered in the FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
"Why was the FBI there? Why did they stop the effort to make the president simply turn over the documents? What caused them to think that they had to seize them?" WPTV political analyst Brian Crowley said.
The Department of Justice handed Judge Bruce Reinhart a redacted version of a probable cause affidavit.
Crowley calls it a major step forward.
"There's been a lot of eagerness to see even a redacted version of the affidavit," he said. "We have until noon tomorrow to finally see it, so it'll be interesting to see what it reveals."
In the order, it suggests redacting the names of witnesses, law enforcement and other parties, as well as the investigation's strategy direction methods and more.
That leaves some to wonder if there will be enough details left to answer why the search happened in the first place.
"Sometimes you will get pages that will look black, meaning the entire document is marked black," former FBI Agent Stuart Kaplan said.
He said it's important to protect the names of agents and law enforcement officials who were doing their jobs, but releasing a witness' identity is key in getting answers.
"Without knowing what generated that information, who those people are, we have no measure as to be able to solidify the trustworthiness and credibility of that information," Kaplan said.
Kaplan said a witness is told the risk that his or her identity is never fully confidential.
"They're going to tell you, 'Hey, we're going try to protect your identity.' But it is not absolute," Kaplan said. "And by the way, if this person is charged, they are ultimately going find out who you are and they're going to find out what you said. And by the way, if that person exercises their right to go to trial, you may have to come forward in a court of law and testify."
Reinhart has until noon Friday to release the redacted documents.
