A week after the FBI raided the LAUSD superintendent's home, why isn't the cause public?

One week after the FBI searched the home and office of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, leader of the Los Angeles Unified School District, there are few public details about the justification for the searches and the underlying investigation.

The reason for the searches is still unknown. A Department of Justice spokesperson said the agency has a court-authorized warrant but declined to provide additional details. The FBI told our media partner CBS LA that the underlying affidavit remained under court-ordered seal.

“Stay tuned,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School. “This is just the beginning on a case like this. [The searches are] a major development, but the fact that they still have this under seal seems to suggest it's ongoing.”

Neighbors told LAist that agents in unmarked cars arrived at Carvalho’s San Pedro home early on the morning of Feb. 25. Agents searched the district’s headquarters, as well as a home in South Florida, which the FBI said was connected to the investigation.

LAist talked to Levenson, a former federal prosecutor, as well as Kenneth Gray, a retired FBI special agent and University of New Haven criminal justice professor, to understand why the search warrant and the affidavit have been shielded from public view. Gray and Levenson spoke based on their experience in the field, not on any insider knowledge of the investigation involving Carvalho.

 What’s in the affidavit?

An affidavit is a sworn document that lays out details of a case — and the underlying reason why law enforcement believes in the need for a search warrant.

 ”You build a case in your affidavit, that you have reason to believe you have probable cause that a crime has been committed and that there is evidence to be found at a specific location,” Gray said. It usually contains information that federal agents have learned themselves or information that others have told them, he said.

Gray and Levenson told LAist it’s “not uncommon” for a judge to agree to restrict the public’s view of an affidavit while an investigation is ongoing. “They could be concerned about people fleeing or covering up evidence or other efforts to obstruct the investigation,” Levenson said.

It could also mean prosecutors are working with witnesses or informants they don’t want to compromise — or on an issue of national security.

“ I would not read into the fact that it is sealed that it means a specific thing because there are many different reasons why,” Gray said.

What’s in a search warrant?

A search warrant typically includes:

• The address and descriptors of the place to be searched 
• A list of items to seize. This may be specific or general, i.e. books, documents, calendars
• The alleged crime

For an example of what a search warrant looks like, see the 2022 search warrant for President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. The Justice Department asked the judge to release the warrant after Trump claimed there was no legitimate legal basis for the search.

When will more information become public?

It’s hard to know.

Levenson said if the investigation is concluded and there are formal charges in the case, it’s likely the affidavits will become unsealed. But it’s also possible it will remain hidden from public view if the investigation is ongoing. “There can be so many offshoots of the case,” she said.

And when do charges usually happen after a search? Levenson said it could be weeks.

“It’s really impossible to guess because we don’t know how widespread this investigation is,” she said. It’s possible charges are never filed.

It’s also possible the search warrant may become public before the affidavit, the latter of which contains more information about the case the prosecutors are trying to build.

“Depending on the type of case, the search warrant usually is something revealed early on,” Gray said. “But the affidavit itself is not [revealed] until it goes to court.”

Gray said the target of the search typically is left with a copy of the warrant and a receipt of the property taken. The receipt also is filed with the court and the evidence stored in an FBI locker, Gray said.

Will there be criminal charges?

The Department of Justice has not publicly charged Carvalho with wrongdoing. Carvalho has made no public statement since the searches.

“Not every case ends up being provable,” Gray said. He acknowledged the media’s right to report on searches but said there can be consequences.

“Sometimes the end result is that people's reputations are damaged when information like this is revealed that has not been proven,” Gray said.

 Who are all these unnamed sources?

Several media outlets have published information not provided publicly, such as the existence of grand jury subpoenas for people connected to the Florida school district Carvalho once led.

LAist contacted Miami-Dade County Public Schools for comment. The district referred our request to the media relations department and its lawyers but has not yet provided any information.

Typically, a newsroom or media outlet has best practices for gathering the information found in stories.

Journalists who focus on a specific topic or geography may develop professional relationships with people or sources who are willing to share information that is not otherwise public.

At LAist, we seek information from people who know the facts “first-hand” — there’s no one between the information we’re seeking and the source.

We use unnamed or anonymous sources as a primary source of information as a last resort because we believe readers and listeners should know where the information in our stories comes from. However, there are some cases where we use confidential sources. For example, when they are the only ones who can provide understanding central to the story.

“Under no circumstances do we allow personal attacks by someone unnamed in our reporting,” read LAist’s standards of practice. “In most circumstances, information from unnamed sources needs to be corroborated by a second credible person, document, tape, or video that is independent of the original source.”