Washington: The public will soon learn more about the reason behind the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after a judge ordered a redacted version of the search warrant affidavit be released.

More than two weeks after the unprecedented incident, federal magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said on Thursday (US time) that he would release a partial version of the affidavit that justified the government’s decision to seize classified documents from the former US president’s home.

The Justice Department now has until midday on Friday (US time) to file a public version of its redacted document. However, not all of it would be disclosed, the judge said, to ensure the department’s investigation was not compromised.

“I find that the government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the affidavit because disclosure would reveal the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties, the investigation’s strategy, direction, scope, sources, and methods, and grand jury information,” Reinhart wrote, explaining why the entire document could not be released.

The August 8 search on Trump’s Florida property unleashed a political storm that energised some Republicans, who viewed it as government overreach, and outraged the more extreme elements of Trump’s base, who saw it as an attempt by the Left to stop the former president from running for re-election.

Depending on what is disclosed, the information could also end up assisting Reinhart, whose own safety – and that of law enforcement more broadly – has been compromised ever since he approved the warrant.

In the aftermath of the search, many of Trump’s supporters took to social media calling for “civil war” against the FBI and the Justice Department, while others encouraged users to post the address of Reinhart’s home, with one declaring “I see a rope around his neck”.

On the other hand, some legal experts have warned that the redactions could be so extensive as to render the documents useless.