Haberman: Trump put Mar-a-Lago staff in a 'dangerous situation' handling classified docs
Many of former President Donald Trump's staffers who likely lack security clearances were allegedly directed to handle classified documents, thus putting them in compromised situations, argued New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
During an appearance on CNN, Haberman argued that after Brian Butler, a.k.a., "Trump Employee 5," revealed some of the inner workings behind Trump's alleged efforts to obstruct investigators, it's clear that the protection of the material and Mar-a-Lago employees' legal insulation wasn't given much consideration.
"Brian Butler, as far as I know, does not have a security clearance. and so a lot of people were around these documents who don't have security clearances," she said.
Butler, who ran the car service at the club, openly discussed working in tandem with Trump aide Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos De Oliveira, both of whom were charged along with Trump in the hoarding and obstruction of classified documents plucked from the White House.
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“I left Mar-a-Lago. I texted [Nauta], ‘Hey, I’m on my way.’ He followed me. He pulled out and got behind me. We got to the airport. I ended up loading all the luggage I had – and he had a bunch of boxes,” Butler said of Nauta. “They were the boxes that were in the indictment, the white bankers boxes. That’s what I remember loading."
Haberman saw Butler's admissions to be both compelling and also consternating.
"He's a central witness," Haberman said. "He's describing a scenario where the former president put a lot of his employees, not just people who worked at Mar-a-Lago to people who worked for him and his post-presidential life... in a dangerous situation because they are handling boxes that had classified material."
Trump's facing a 49-page federal indictment that accuses him and his aides Nauta and De Oliveira of mishandling sensitive material and alleged obstruction of federal investigators.