'An insider tipped the FBI off': Experts pounce on bombshell Mar-a-Lago report
February 02, 2024
There are whispers of FBI screw ups and cooperating witnesses from experts who have read the bombshell report that some hidden areas of Mar-a-Lago went unsearched during a raid by the FBI.
It was reported as an "astonishing" lapse that saw FBI agents miss a “hidden room” in their search of Mar-a-Lago, the social club where former President Donald Trump stands accused of storing top secret official documents.
It got former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann thinking that there just might be a new cooperating witness on the table.
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"The reports that the FBI missed a 'hidden' room at MAL makes me wonder how the FBI now knows that," the expert wrote Thursday. "Sounds like an insider has tipped the FBI off to that, i.e., another cooperating witness."
Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, chimed in that it "also sounds like another embarrassing lapse by the FBI-- which did not want to search MAL in the first place."
"Yet more for the FBI Director to answer for," he added.
Former prosecutor Shanlon Wunoted that the search warrant that allowed the search, also allowed the FBI to conduct a search of the locked closet. The legal expert also clarified that the search happened "BEFORE Jack Smith was appointed to lead the investigation."
Allison Gill, who worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, also added some clarification on the issue of the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search.
"Keep in mind, FBI Trump holdover D’Antuono initially blocked the search of Mar a Lago, then finally relented to DoJ prosecutors," she wrote. "Then he wanted to alert Trump to the search. Then he agreed but not if the FBI wore their uniforms. I’m not surprised the FBI 'missed' some rooms."