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Mar-a-Lago smoking gun footage may mean DOJ may not have recovered all the classified material: legal experts
August 13, 2022
Donald Trump's legal predicament may have worsened, legal experts said, after a bombshell report published Saturday evening by The New York Times.
"The Justice Department also subpoenaed surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago recorded over a 60-day period, including views from outside the storage room. According to a person briefed on the matter, the footage showed that, after one instance in which Justice Department officials were in contact with Mr. Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room," Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush reported. "That activity prompted concern among investigators about the handling of the material. It is not clear when precisely the footage was from during the lengthy back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and Mr. Trump’s advisers, or whether the subpoena to Mr. Trump seeking additional documents had already been issued.
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti noted the story and tweeted, "It sounds like DOJ has reason to be concerned that it *still* may not have recovered all of the classified material taken by Trump."
Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said, "obviously that raises many questions since it was false. If true, FBI couldn't have left with 21 more boxes in August."
Law Prof. Rick Hasen wrote, "Do any of us doubt that someone besides Trump or someone in Trump's orbit who lied about possessing such documents and didn't give them back would already be held in custody pending further proceedings?"
Attorney Pam Keith said Attorney General Merrick Garland "still hasn’t detained or even questioned Trump. People are acting like that’s normal or justifiable. Given what we know, It’s INSANE!!"
"So what’s the excuse today for Trump not being arrested?" Keith asked. "I stand by my conclusion that Garland is too scared."
Bestselling author Don Winslow wanted Trump indicted long ago.
"What happened when Donald Trump was not indicted for 50 years? He became President of the United States and committed four more years of crimes," Winslow wrote. "When does it stop?"
Bill Kristol, who served as Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff said, "Whoa. Let me amplify. WHOA."
ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'She’s loaded. They all have guns': Lauren Boebert neighbors forced to call 911 over speeding and property damage
\u201cFormer President Trump has repeatedly changed his story as to why he kept classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. @RohdeD tells @CharlesMBlow that while his base will likely believe him, there is "fatigue with the chaos and the lies of Donald Trump." WATCH:\u201d— AYMAN (@AYMAN) 1660438335
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Feds obtained surveillance footage showing boxes being moved after discussions with DOJ: report
August 13, 2022
Donald Trump's possession of documents marked with top secret classification at Mar-a-Lago was the focus of another bombshell report published online by The New York Times on Saturday evening.
"Last year, officials with the National Archives discovered that Mr. Trump had taken a slew of documents and other government material with him when he left the White House at the end of his tumultuous term in January 2021. That material was supposed to have been sent to the archives under the terms of the Presidential Records Act," Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush reported. "Mr. Trump returned 15 boxes of material in January of this year. When archivists examined the material, they found many pages of documents with classified markings and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which began an investigation and convened a grand jury."
A subpoena was reportedly sent in the spring demanding the return of the classified public records.
On June 3, Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the DOJ’s national security division, visited Mar-a-Lago and the newspaper reported "Bratt and his team left with additional material marked classified, and around that time also obtained the written declaration from a Trump lawyer attesting that all the material marked classified in the boxes had been turned over."
The subpoena for the records' return was not the only subpoena DOJ sent in the case.
"The Justice Department also subpoenaed surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago recorded over a 60-day period, including views from outside the storage room. According to a person briefed on the matter, the footage showed that, after one instance in which Justice Department officials were in contact with Mr. Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room," The Times reported. "That activity prompted concern among investigators about the handling of the material. It is not clear when precisely the footage was from during the lengthy back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and Mr. Trump’s advisers, or whether the subpoena to Mr. Trump seeking additional documents had already been issued.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'She’s loaded. They all have guns': Lauren Boebert neighbors forced to call 911 over speeding and property damage
Read the full report.
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Donald Trump is seeking to staff up his legal team as he faces investigations in Florida, Georgia, New York, and Washington, DC.
In Georgia, Trump bulked up his legal team by hiring "Billion Dollar Lawyer" Drew Findling, who is best known for defending famous rappers. Findling called for Trump to be impeached on his 24th day in office.
Trump is also seeking to expand his Florida legal team after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The report noted former OAN reporter Christina Bobb "became the face of Trump’s legal pushback, booking time on Fox and other conservative media outlets. But behind the scenes, Trump’s allies initiated a hunt for new attorneys who might be more experienced with the complex battle with the Justice Department they knew was about to begin."
However, Bobb may have to recuse herself as a witness in the case.
"There was a growing realization, in the words of one close adviser, that the former president could be in for a 'big fight for a long time.' It was a familiar predicament for Trump, who has changed lawyers repeatedly since 2016 and has at times had trouble finding high-powered counsel to take up his cause," the newspaper noted.
Trump's rag-tag team pushing his election denialism included Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and John Eastman.
"Jon Sale, a prominent Florida defense attorney who had been part of the Watergate prosecutorial team, confirmed he was asked this week to represent Trump — and declined. He called the request a 'privilege' but said that because of 'other professional commitments,' he did not have the time to provide the kind of lawyering he believed Trump will need."
Read the full report.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'She’s loaded. They all have guns': Lauren Boebert neighbors forced to call 911 over speeding and property damage
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