'Unusual' Mar-a-Lago lock change could hand Jack Smith 'powerful' new evidence: expert

Reacting to a bombshell report that FBI agents failed to gain entry to a closet and a "hidden room" during their search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance called it an "inexplicable" lapse by the agency, but conceded the reason for failing to investigate could still help special counsel Jack Smith.

On Thursday, multiple news outlets reported on the FBI's failure as investigators sought stolen documents taken by the former president after he lost his re-election bid in 2000.

According to ABC News, they were unable to access one of the rooms which was locked and there was no key made available, with agents being assured ... the space behind the door — an old stairwell turned into a closet with shelves — went nowhere, so they decided not to break it open, sources said."

However, the report adds that the former president had asked for the lock to be changed on June 2 while his attorney Evan Corcoran was going through the property's basement looking for the documents the government had been seeking for months.

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As ABC reported, "Through their investigation, Smith's team learned that while Corcoran was still in the storage room, Trump asked a longtime Mar-a-Lago employee to change the lock on the closet, sources said. For years, the lock on the closet was managed by the Secret Service, but on June 2, 2022, Trump had it changed and wanted the key, the sources said. One former maintenance worker described Trump's request as unusual, according to the sources."

With that in mind, ex-prosecutor Vance wrote on her Substack platform that Trump's trial before Judge Aileen Cannon is centered on obstruction of justice, and the key change at the same time a Trump lawyer was seeking documents could bolster the DOJ's charge.

"The meat of the case against Trump is his effort to obstruct the investigation and to keep classified material from being recovered by the government, even after his own lawyers advised him he was required to return it," she explained. "If Jack Smith’s team has come up with evidence that Trump, for instance, changed the lock on his closet and stored documents there to conceal them from the government, that would be powerful when the case goes to trial."

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She also added the caveat that Cannon is still dragging her feet on the case by writing: "We’re not used to thinking of judges as standing in the way of justice, but it’s increasingly difficult to view Judge Aileen Cannon in any other light... The public is entitled to know whether a candidate for the presidency is guilty of illegally possessing and carelessly maintaining some of the nation’s most important secrets and whether he obstructed justice before they vote. Judges shouldn’t stand in the way of justice."

You can read more from Joyce here.