Mitch McConnell refuses to comment on Justice Department filing in Trump case
Donald Trump has caused a lot of problems for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) this year. Thus far it's been about endorsing Senate candidates that have low chances of making it through the general election. But for the past month, Trump has brought more scandals to the news cycle.
Now that the Justice Department is revealing more about what the FBI found at Trump's resort in Palm Beach, things are growing even more complicated for Republicans.
Asked if he wanted to comment on the filing, McConnell made it clear he wants nothing to do with it.
"I don't have any observations about that," he told NBC News producer Frank Thorp.
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Documents at Trump's Florida home were "likely concealed" to obstruct an FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday. The filing provides the most detailed account yet of the motivation for the FBI raid this month on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, which was triggered by a review of records he previously surrendered to authorities that contained top secret information.
Before the raid, the FBI uncovered "multiple sources of evidence" showing that "classified documents" remained at Mar-a-Lago, the filing says.
"The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed... and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation," the filing adds.
The DOJ said it provided the detailed background on the build-up to the raid "to correct the incomplete and inaccurate narrative set forth in (Trump's) filings."
Republican officials and conservative pundits have tried to downplay the seriousness of the revelations that Trump retained government documents, including highly classified and sensitive information. They've tried to justify the behavior by saying that he can declassify whatever he wants, despite no longer being president. They've attempted to compare Trump to Hillary Clinton, who they chanted should be "locked up."
With additional reporting by AFP
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