Donald Trump Jr. suggested on Monday that the United States would be safer if his father, former President Donald Trump, had stashed "the nuclear codes" at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Palm Beach.
The comment comes on the heels of the FBI searching Mar-a-Lago for documents that should have been returned to the National Archives after Trump's presidency ended. According to reports, FBI agents discovered as many as 300 classified documents in raid on Trump's Palm Beach home.
The eldest Trump son shared his opinion – which resembled a stand-up comedy routine – at an event in support of Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz's reelection campaign.
"Donald Trump has the nuclear codes!! In the linen closet at Mar-a-Lago!!" Trump Jr. remarked.
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That’s not how America's nuclear codes work. The codes the commander-in-chief has, also known as the Gold Codes, identify the president and confirm the president's authority to order a nuclear attack. Even if Trump did hold on to the nuclear codes, they wouldn't be useful for authorizing an attack now, because he is no longer the president and the codes change frequently.
Trump Jr’s remarks follows reporting from The Washington Post that the FBI sought to locate classified documents related to nuclear weapons when agents searched former President Trump’s residence. The sources did not offer additional details to the Post about “what type of information the agents were seeking” or whether any such documents were recovered, according to the paper.
Trump’s legal team asked a federal judge on Monday to appoint a “special master,” or third-party attorney, to oversee the review of evidence gathered from Mar-a-Lago and to ensure the Justice Department returns any of his private documents seized during the search.
Trump is asking for the judge to pause federal investigators’ work related to the evidence until the review is done, according to the federal court filing in South Florida.
In an additional court filing on Monday, it appears Trump is planning to represent himself in the West Palm Beach case.
Attorney and legal commentator Tristan Snell, tweeted Monday, “BREAKING: Trump is representing HIMSELF, with no lawyer at all, in his case against the United States regarding the search of Mar-a-Lago and recovery of government records. The legal term is “pro se” - for himself. He could not find anyone to represent him.”
The facts surrounding the Mar-a-Lago search and seizure continue to develop at warp speed. Despite Trump Jr’s claim “that if Donald Trump actually still had the nuclear codes it would probably be good,” he does not.
For now, President Biden is the one with access to the nuclear codes, while Trump has access to a seemingly never-ending list of pending legal cases and the keys to his Mar-a-Lago resort.
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