Yaawwwwwwwwnnnnn
The FBI just raided Mar-A-Lago
- Thread starter ugk
- Start date
Yaawwwwwwwwnnnnn
This is one of those things that mainly bothers me not because I think that it's illegal or unethical but mainly because I think that it is just dumb.Trump used folder bearing ‘classified’ wording to block light keeping him awake at night, lawyer says
“He has one of those landline telephones next to his bed, and it has a blue light on it, and it keeps him up at night,” Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore told CNN. He added, “So now the president has to find a different way to keep the blue light out of his eyes.”
By Summer Concepcion
Feb. 13, 2023, 12:19 PM EST
Trump used folder bearing ‘classified’ wording to block light keeping him awake at night, lawyer says
“He has one of those landline telephones next to his bed, and it has a blue light on it, and it keeps him up at night,” Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore told CNN. He added, “So now the president has to find a different way to keep the blue light out of his eyes.”www.nbcnews.com
A lawyer for former President Donald Trump shared a surprising explanation for what Trump was doing at his Mar-a-Lago resort with a folder bearing "classified" wording that was recently turned over to federal investigators.
The lawyer, Tim Parlatore, was asked in a CNN interview Sunday about what he said was an empty folder labeled “classified evening summary” that was given to investigators. Parlatore described the folder as “one of the more humorous aspects of this whole thing.”
The folder was in Trump’s bedroom at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and he was using it help him sleep better at night, Parlatore said.
“He has one of those landline telephones next to his bed, and it has a blue light on it, and it keeps him up at night,” Parlatore said. “So he took the manila folder and he put it over it so that it would keep the light down so he could sleep at night.”
Despite being labeled with the words “classified evening summary,” the folder did not bear classified markings, and it was empty, Parlatore said.
"It is not a classification marking," he said. "It's not anything that is controlled in any way. There's nothing illegal about it. There's nothing in it."
But the Justice Department “went crazy” when it found out about it, he said.
“They actually gave me a subpoena to say give us over this empty folder that means nothing,” he continued.
Asked how investigators found out about the folder next to Trump’s bed, Parlatore said Trump’s legal team wrote reports about the places it searched for classified documents and shared the information with investigators.
“And when they read that, and they saw, oh, there’s this folder here that is so far outside of the scope of the subpoena or anything else, they demanded it back,” Parlatore said.
“So now the president has to find a different way to keep the blue light out of his eyes.”
Trump’s legal team voluntarily turned over the folder, which it said was found at Mar-a-Lago, to the Justice Department last month, a senior law enforcement official said last week.
It is unclear what level of classification markings were on the folder or what it might have contained.
The Justice Department has continued efforts to recover classified documents from Trump after FBI agents searched his Florida residence with a warrant last year. Agents found more than 100 documents with classification markings after Trump’s lawyers said he had returned all documents with classified markings from the White House, Justice Department officials said in court filings in August. Two more documents with classified markings were found at a storage facility not far from Mar-a-Lago in December and were turned over to the FBI.
A “small number” of classified documents were also found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home last month, according to his lawyer. The FBI discovered an additional classified document at Pence’s Indiana home during a voluntary five-hour search Friday.
Obama-era classified documents were found in President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and an office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.
You're telling me the man can't just get another phone or find a piece of tape or something less suspicious than a folder like that? It just reeks of being lazy. Which is not a crime, but I'm just saying.
This is just like seeing on the news that a Bank of America was robbed earlier today and you go to your homie's house and see he is using a BOA bag to carry his laundry.
Gang of 8 to be briefed on Trump, Biden and Pence documents
BY REBECCA KAPLAN, KATHRYN WATSON, OLIVIA GAZIS, ROBERT LEGARE
UPDATED ON: FEBRUARY 27, 2023 / 2:27 PM / CBS NEWS
www.cbsnews.com
The top eight congressional leaders known as the "Gang of 8" will be briefed Tuesday on the documents with classified markings that were found at the residences and offices of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
The Gang of 8 consists of the top four leaders in the House and Senate, as well as the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees. The briefing is scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday, with representatives from the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefing.
Documents bearing classified markings have been found at the homes of Trump, Mr. Biden and Pence. The FBI seized records from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last year after obtaining a court-authorized search warrant, and the searches of Mr. Biden's residence and office and of Pence's home were consensual. The content of those documents has not been disclosed to the public.
The Gang of 8, which currently includes no women, comprises House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman Marco Rubio, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner and House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes.
It's not yet clear whether those members will be able to share any unclassified information after the briefing.
BY REBECCA KAPLAN, KATHRYN WATSON, OLIVIA GAZIS, ROBERT LEGARE
UPDATED ON: FEBRUARY 27, 2023 / 2:27 PM / CBS NEWS
Gang of 8 to be briefed on Trump, Biden and Pence documents
The briefing is scheduled for Tuesday, according to multiple sources.
www.cbsnews.com
The top eight congressional leaders known as the "Gang of 8" will be briefed Tuesday on the documents with classified markings that were found at the residences and offices of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
The Gang of 8 consists of the top four leaders in the House and Senate, as well as the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees. The briefing is scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday, with representatives from the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefing.
Documents bearing classified markings have been found at the homes of Trump, Mr. Biden and Pence. The FBI seized records from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last year after obtaining a court-authorized search warrant, and the searches of Mr. Biden's residence and office and of Pence's home were consensual. The content of those documents has not been disclosed to the public.
The Gang of 8, which currently includes no women, comprises House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman Marco Rubio, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner and House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes.
It's not yet clear whether those members will be able to share any unclassified information after the briefing.
I Still Say Nothings Gonna Happen...But at This Point I Feel Like Biden Has His DOJ Slow Walking This Until Next Year Sometime When They Will Finally Start Dropping Indictments on Trump.....Which May Never Actually Go Anywhere or Amount to Anything......So Biden and the Dems Can Use It to Energize the Base as Their "We Got Bin Laden" Moment for Re-Election Fuel
I have stated before that Trump is not going to jail.
Mainly due to he is a former POTUS, he is too high of a security risk. The information he knows, plenty of folks in prison would love to have.
Also, what nobody takes into consideration is Trump didn’t get where he has this far in life cuz he is a mastermind genius.
Tons of people in politics, business and finance here in America and around the world have had their hand in the “Cookie Jar” aiding Trump over the past 40+ years.
AG Merritt Garland knows this.
And AG Garland and a shit load of mofos out here know, if Trump goes down, he ain’t going down alone. He will snitch on everybody.
Bringing down Trump could not only cause a Constitutional Crisis, but also kick up a Global Economic Crisis that nobody is prepared for.
It sounds crazy, but it’s no secret that American/Global politics and the Global Economy is operating like a “House of Cards”.
All it takes is one small incident to kick shit into SHTF Mode.
Some FBI agents wanted to believe Donald Trump returned all classified documents and close the criminal investigation 2 months before the Mar-a-Lago raid uncovered more sensitive material, The Washington Post reported
Some agents wanted to believe Trump's lawyer's claims that they'd already conducted a thorough search.
Lloyd Lee
Mar 1, 2023, 10:09 PM
www.businessinsider.com
Two months before the FBI executed an unprecedented raid of a former president's home, seizing more than 100 classified documents, some agents wanted to believe that Donald Trump's attorneys had already conducted a thorough search of the Mar-a-Lago premises in Palm Beach, Florida.
A Wednesday report from The Washington Post revealed how FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors clashed on how to proceed with a criminal probe into Trump's handling of classified records prior to the months that led up to the Mar-a-Lago raid on August 8, 2022.
While some FBI officials pushed to get consent from Trump to search his property, other field agents wanted to close the criminal investigation entirely by early June after Trump's attorneys claimed they conducted a "diligent search" of Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the discussions and who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to talk about a sensitive investigation.
On June 3, 2022, a few FBI agents and a DOJ official convened at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve remaining classified documents that were in Trump's possession. Christina Bobb, one of Trump's attorneys, signed a letter attesting that a careful search was completed, according to a court filing.
This claim convinced some with the FBI that the criminal case should be closed, people with knowledge of the matter told the Post.
A senior law enforcement official told the publication that closing the investigation was not considered by FBI leadership and would not have been approved.
Despite misgivings from some FBI agents about the probe, prosecutors were adamant to gather more evidence and told the FBI to conduct more witness interviews and obtain Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage, The Post reported.
Video obtained by investigators showed someone moving boxes away from an area where documents were stored, alarming prosecutors, according to The Post report. The New York Times previously reported that security footage showed a longtime Trump staffer moving boxes out of a storage room before and after the DOJ issued a subpoena in May requesting all classified documents.
Legal experts told The Post that FBI agents may have not been able to recover the classified documents if the criminal case was closed earlier in June.
The FBI declined to comment.
Some agents wanted to believe Trump's lawyer's claims that they'd already conducted a thorough search.
Lloyd Lee
Mar 1, 2023, 10:09 PM
Some FBI agents wanted to believe Donald Trump returned all classified documents and close the criminal investigation 2 months before the Mar-a-Lago raid uncovered more sensitive material, The Washington Post reported
Some FBI agents wanted to close the case after Donald Trump's lawyers claimed they conducted a thorough search of Mar-a-Lago, The Post reported.
www.businessinsider.com
Two months before the FBI executed an unprecedented raid of a former president's home, seizing more than 100 classified documents, some agents wanted to believe that Donald Trump's attorneys had already conducted a thorough search of the Mar-a-Lago premises in Palm Beach, Florida.
A Wednesday report from The Washington Post revealed how FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors clashed on how to proceed with a criminal probe into Trump's handling of classified records prior to the months that led up to the Mar-a-Lago raid on August 8, 2022.
While some FBI officials pushed to get consent from Trump to search his property, other field agents wanted to close the criminal investigation entirely by early June after Trump's attorneys claimed they conducted a "diligent search" of Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the discussions and who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to talk about a sensitive investigation.
On June 3, 2022, a few FBI agents and a DOJ official convened at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve remaining classified documents that were in Trump's possession. Christina Bobb, one of Trump's attorneys, signed a letter attesting that a careful search was completed, according to a court filing.
This claim convinced some with the FBI that the criminal case should be closed, people with knowledge of the matter told the Post.
A senior law enforcement official told the publication that closing the investigation was not considered by FBI leadership and would not have been approved.
Despite misgivings from some FBI agents about the probe, prosecutors were adamant to gather more evidence and told the FBI to conduct more witness interviews and obtain Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage, The Post reported.
Video obtained by investigators showed someone moving boxes away from an area where documents were stored, alarming prosecutors, according to The Post report. The New York Times previously reported that security footage showed a longtime Trump staffer moving boxes out of a storage room before and after the DOJ issued a subpoena in May requesting all classified documents.
Legal experts told The Post that FBI agents may have not been able to recover the classified documents if the criminal case was closed earlier in June.
The FBI declined to comment.
Some FBI agents wanted to believe Donald Trump returned all classified documents and close the criminal investigation 2 months before the Mar-a-Lago raid uncovered more sensitive material, The Washington Post reported
Some agents wanted to believe Trump's lawyer's claims that they'd already conducted a thorough search.
Lloyd Lee
Mar 1, 2023, 10:09 PM
Some FBI agents wanted to believe Donald Trump returned all classified documents and close the criminal investigation 2 months before the Mar-a-Lago raid uncovered more sensitive material, The Washington Post reported
Some FBI agents wanted to close the case after Donald Trump's lawyers claimed they conducted a thorough search of Mar-a-Lago, The Post reported.
Two months before the FBI executed an unprecedented raid of a former president's home, seizing more than 100 classified documents, some agents wanted to believe that Donald Trump's attorneys had already conducted a thorough search of the Mar-a-Lago premises in Palm Beach, Florida.
A Wednesday report from The Washington Post revealed how FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors clashed on how to proceed with a criminal probe into Trump's handling of classified records prior to the months that led up to the Mar-a-Lago raid on August 8, 2022.
While some FBI officials pushed to get consent from Trump to search his property, other field agents wanted to close the criminal investigation entirely by early June after Trump's attorneys claimed they conducted a "diligent search" of Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the discussions and who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to talk about a sensitive investigation.
On June 3, 2022, a few FBI agents and a DOJ official convened at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve remaining classified documents that were in Trump's possession. Christina Bobb, one of Trump's attorneys, signed a letter attesting that a careful search was completed, according to a court filing.
This claim convinced some with the FBI that the criminal case should be closed, people with knowledge of the matter told the Post.
A senior law enforcement official told the publication that closing the investigation was not considered by FBI leadership and would not have been approved.
Despite misgivings from some FBI agents about the probe, prosecutors were adamant to gather more evidence and told the FBI to conduct more witness interviews and obtain Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage, The Post reported.
Video obtained by investigators showed someone moving boxes away from an area where documents were stored, alarming prosecutors, according to The Post report. The New York Times previously reported that security footage showed a longtime Trump staffer moving boxes out of a storage room before and after the DOJ issued a subpoena in May requesting all classified documents.
Legal experts told The Post that FBI agents may have not been able to recover the classified documents if the criminal case was closed earlier in June.
The FBI declined to comment.

All the institutions are compromised
EXCLUSIVE: Dozens of Mar-a-Lago staff, from servers to aides, are subpoenaed in classified documents probe
By Katelyn Polantz, Paula Reid, Kristen Holmes and Casey Gannon, CNN
Updated 4:10 PM EDT, Thu March 16, 2023
amp.cnn.com
At least two dozen people -- from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Donald Trump's inner circle at the Florida estate -- have been subpoenaed to testify to a federal grand jury that's investigating the former president's handling of classified documents, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.
On Thursday, Trump's communications aide Margo Martin, who worked in the White House and then moved with Trump to Florida, appeared before the grand jury in Washington, DC. One of special counsel Jack Smith's senior-most prosecutors was involved in the interview.
Margo Martin, White House press assistant, listens during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Martin, who is among a small group of former White House advisers who have remained employed by Trump after he left office, declined to answer any questions when approached by a CNN reporter.
Smith has sought testimony from a range of people close to Trump -- from his own attorneys who represent him in the matter to staffers who work on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, including a housekeeper and restaurant servers, sources said.
The staffers are of interest to investigators because of what they may have seen or heard while on their daily duties around the estate, including whether they saw boxes or documents in Trump's office suite or elsewhere.
"They're casting an extremely wide net -- anyone and everyone who might have seen something," said one source familiar with the Justice Department's efforts.
For instance, federal investigators have talked to a Mar-a-Lago staff member seen on security camera footage moving boxes from a storage room with Trump aide Walt Nauta, who has already spoken with investigators.
Many of the Mar-a-Lago staffers are being represented by counsel paid for by Trump entities, according to sources and federal elections records.
The Justice Department has been investigating potential mishandling of national security records and possible obstruction for about a year. FBI agents recovered more than 100 classified documents during a search of Mar-a-Lago last summer. Since then, Trump's legal team has turned over additional classified material.
The federal probe previously subpoenaed top Trump advisers, such as former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and former Trump adviser and Pentagon official Kash Patel.
Meanwhile, Smith continues to pursue Trump defense lawyer Evan Corcoran. In an earlier appearance before the grand jury, Corcoran declined to answer questions about his conversations with Trump related to the classified documents, citing attorney-client privilege. Prosecutors are asking a judge to find that he must answer because the conversations may have been part of advancing a crime or fraud.
A ruling is expected from the DC District Court on Corcoran as early as this week.
By Katelyn Polantz, Paula Reid, Kristen Holmes and Casey Gannon, CNN
Updated 4:10 PM EDT, Thu March 16, 2023
EXCLUSIVE: Dozens of Mar-a-Lago staff, from servers to aides, are subpoenaed in classified documents probe | CNN Politics
At least two dozen people – from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Donald Trump’s inner circle at the Florida estate – have been subpoenaed to testify to a federal grand jury that’s investigating the former president’s handling of classified documents, multiple sources familiar with the...
At least two dozen people -- from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Donald Trump's inner circle at the Florida estate -- have been subpoenaed to testify to a federal grand jury that's investigating the former president's handling of classified documents, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.
On Thursday, Trump's communications aide Margo Martin, who worked in the White House and then moved with Trump to Florida, appeared before the grand jury in Washington, DC. One of special counsel Jack Smith's senior-most prosecutors was involved in the interview.
Margo Martin, White House press assistant, listens during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Martin, who is among a small group of former White House advisers who have remained employed by Trump after he left office, declined to answer any questions when approached by a CNN reporter.
Smith has sought testimony from a range of people close to Trump -- from his own attorneys who represent him in the matter to staffers who work on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, including a housekeeper and restaurant servers, sources said.
The staffers are of interest to investigators because of what they may have seen or heard while on their daily duties around the estate, including whether they saw boxes or documents in Trump's office suite or elsewhere.
"They're casting an extremely wide net -- anyone and everyone who might have seen something," said one source familiar with the Justice Department's efforts.
For instance, federal investigators have talked to a Mar-a-Lago staff member seen on security camera footage moving boxes from a storage room with Trump aide Walt Nauta, who has already spoken with investigators.
Many of the Mar-a-Lago staffers are being represented by counsel paid for by Trump entities, according to sources and federal elections records.
The Justice Department has been investigating potential mishandling of national security records and possible obstruction for about a year. FBI agents recovered more than 100 classified documents during a search of Mar-a-Lago last summer. Since then, Trump's legal team has turned over additional classified material.
The federal probe previously subpoenaed top Trump advisers, such as former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and former Trump adviser and Pentagon official Kash Patel.
Meanwhile, Smith continues to pursue Trump defense lawyer Evan Corcoran. In an earlier appearance before the grand jury, Corcoran declined to answer questions about his conversations with Trump related to the classified documents, citing attorney-client privilege. Prosecutors are asking a judge to find that he must answer because the conversations may have been part of advancing a crime or fraud.
A ruling is expected from the DC District Court on Corcoran as early as this week.
Sources: Special counsel claims Trump deliberately misled his attorneys about classified documents, judge wrote
The judge said there could be indications of criminal violations, per sources.
ByKatherine Faulders,Alexander Mallin andLucien Bruggeman
March 21, 2023, 6:10 PM ET
abcnews.go.com
Prosecutors in the special counsel's office have presented compelling preliminary evidence that former President Donald Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials after leaving office, a former top federal judge wrote Friday in a sealed filing, according to sources who described its contents to ABC News.
U.S. Judge Beryl Howell, who on Friday stepped down as the D.C. district court's chief judge, wrote last week that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith's office had made a "prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations," according to the sources, and that attorney-client privileges invoked by two of his lawyers could therefore be pierced.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in his handling of classified documents.
In her sealed filing, Howell ordered that Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Trump, should comply with a grand jury subpoena for testimony on six separate lines of inquiry over which he had previously asserted attorney-client privilege.
Sources added that Howell also ordered Corcoran to hand over a number of records tied to what Howell described as Trump's alleged "criminal scheme," echoing prosecutors. Those records include handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings.
In reaching the so-called prima facie standard to pierce Corcoran's privilege, Howell agreed prosecutors made a sufficient showing that on its face would appear to show Trump committed crimes. The judge made it clear that prosecutors would still need to meet a higher standard of evidence in order to seek charges against Trump, and more still to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
"It is a lower hurdle, but it is an indication that the government had presented some evidence and allegation that they had evidence that met the elements of a crime," Brandon Van Grack, a former top national security official in the Justice Department who is now in private practice, told ABC News.
Howell found that prosecutors showed "sufficient" evidence that Trump "intentionally concealed" the existence of additional classified documents from Corcoran, sources said, putting Corcoran in an unwitting position to deceive the government.
It's unclear what evidence Howell may have reviewed under seal from both DOJ and Trump's attorneys to help her arrive at her decision.
In response to ABC News, a Trump campaign spokesperson said, in part, "Shame on Fake News ABC for broadcasting ILLEGALLY LEAKED false allegations from a Never Trump, now former chief judge, against the Trump legal team."
"The real story here, that Fake News ABC SHOULD be reporting on, is that prosecutors only attack lawyers when they have no case whatsoever," the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the special counsel's office declined to comment to ABC News.
The developments described by sources illustrate another dimension of the former president's ongoing legal vulnerabilities. As Smith's classified documents probe marches forward, prosecutors in New York are mulling a separate indictment against Trump over hush payments he allegedly paid to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump also faces scrutiny in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state, and Smith is continuing his own probe into Trump's attempts to interfere in the 2020 election.
Central to Smith's efforts in the classified documents probe is determining whether lawyers who represented the former president falsely certified in response to a grand jury subpoena that Trump had returned all classified records to the government or whether Trump himself sought to conceal records that he might have unlawfully retained.
Federal prosecutors have claimed that lawyers for Trump certified in June 2022 that a "diligent search" of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate turned up just 38 classified documents stored in a secured storage room. But two months later, when FBI agents raided the premises, they found more than 100 additional documents marked classified -- some of which were located outside of the storage room, including in Trump's office desk, prosecutors said.
In her order last Friday, Howell was unsparing in her criticism of Trump's actions since early last year in response to the government's attempts to retrieve all classified documents taken from the White House. At one point she described Trump's interactions with officials from the National Archives as a "dress rehearsal," sources said, for his later efforts at misdirection in response to the grand jury subpoena.
As ABC News has previously reported, investigators sought to compel the testimony of Corcoran and another Trump attorney, Jennifer Little, as part of their probe, citing the crime-fraud exception, which allows for attorney-client privilege to be pierced in cases where it is suspected that legal services were rendered in the commission of a crime. Sources told ABC News that Howell ordered Little's testimony as well, with the exception of one of the topics for which she sought to assert attorney-client privilege.
Sources said prosecutors have sought to question Corcoran on how he aided another Trump attorney, Christina Bobb, in drafting the June 2022 statement to the Justice Department, which Bobb ultimately signed.
Attorneys for Trump were expected to appeal Howell's Friday ruling, sources said.
The judge said there could be indications of criminal violations, per sources.
ByKatherine Faulders,Alexander Mallin andLucien Bruggeman
March 21, 2023, 6:10 PM ET
Sources: Special counsel claims Trump deliberately misled his attorneys about classified documents, judge wrote
A federal judge ruled the special counsel has presented evidence that Donald Trump may have broken the law in his handling of classified documents, sources told ABC News.
Prosecutors in the special counsel's office have presented compelling preliminary evidence that former President Donald Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials after leaving office, a former top federal judge wrote Friday in a sealed filing, according to sources who described its contents to ABC News.
U.S. Judge Beryl Howell, who on Friday stepped down as the D.C. district court's chief judge, wrote last week that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith's office had made a "prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations," according to the sources, and that attorney-client privileges invoked by two of his lawyers could therefore be pierced.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in his handling of classified documents.
In her sealed filing, Howell ordered that Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Trump, should comply with a grand jury subpoena for testimony on six separate lines of inquiry over which he had previously asserted attorney-client privilege.
Sources added that Howell also ordered Corcoran to hand over a number of records tied to what Howell described as Trump's alleged "criminal scheme," echoing prosecutors. Those records include handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings.
In reaching the so-called prima facie standard to pierce Corcoran's privilege, Howell agreed prosecutors made a sufficient showing that on its face would appear to show Trump committed crimes. The judge made it clear that prosecutors would still need to meet a higher standard of evidence in order to seek charges against Trump, and more still to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
"It is a lower hurdle, but it is an indication that the government had presented some evidence and allegation that they had evidence that met the elements of a crime," Brandon Van Grack, a former top national security official in the Justice Department who is now in private practice, told ABC News.
Howell found that prosecutors showed "sufficient" evidence that Trump "intentionally concealed" the existence of additional classified documents from Corcoran, sources said, putting Corcoran in an unwitting position to deceive the government.
It's unclear what evidence Howell may have reviewed under seal from both DOJ and Trump's attorneys to help her arrive at her decision.
In response to ABC News, a Trump campaign spokesperson said, in part, "Shame on Fake News ABC for broadcasting ILLEGALLY LEAKED false allegations from a Never Trump, now former chief judge, against the Trump legal team."
"The real story here, that Fake News ABC SHOULD be reporting on, is that prosecutors only attack lawyers when they have no case whatsoever," the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the special counsel's office declined to comment to ABC News.
The developments described by sources illustrate another dimension of the former president's ongoing legal vulnerabilities. As Smith's classified documents probe marches forward, prosecutors in New York are mulling a separate indictment against Trump over hush payments he allegedly paid to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump also faces scrutiny in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state, and Smith is continuing his own probe into Trump's attempts to interfere in the 2020 election.
Central to Smith's efforts in the classified documents probe is determining whether lawyers who represented the former president falsely certified in response to a grand jury subpoena that Trump had returned all classified records to the government or whether Trump himself sought to conceal records that he might have unlawfully retained.
Federal prosecutors have claimed that lawyers for Trump certified in June 2022 that a "diligent search" of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate turned up just 38 classified documents stored in a secured storage room. But two months later, when FBI agents raided the premises, they found more than 100 additional documents marked classified -- some of which were located outside of the storage room, including in Trump's office desk, prosecutors said.
In her order last Friday, Howell was unsparing in her criticism of Trump's actions since early last year in response to the government's attempts to retrieve all classified documents taken from the White House. At one point she described Trump's interactions with officials from the National Archives as a "dress rehearsal," sources said, for his later efforts at misdirection in response to the grand jury subpoena.
As ABC News has previously reported, investigators sought to compel the testimony of Corcoran and another Trump attorney, Jennifer Little, as part of their probe, citing the crime-fraud exception, which allows for attorney-client privilege to be pierced in cases where it is suspected that legal services were rendered in the commission of a crime. Sources told ABC News that Howell ordered Little's testimony as well, with the exception of one of the topics for which she sought to assert attorney-client privilege.
Sources said prosecutors have sought to question Corcoran on how he aided another Trump attorney, Christina Bobb, in drafting the June 2022 statement to the Justice Department, which Bobb ultimately signed.
Attorneys for Trump were expected to appeal Howell's Friday ruling, sources said.
well damn
He is so very extremely fucked.
I dont think the average casually informed person comprehends the immense magnitude of fucked this guy is.
If fucked was measured in height this dude would be on top of Mt. Fuckedmore.
Republicans behind closed doors knows this is the case. This is why I need to run far away from him because once he explodes they going to be collateral damage.
The ones coming to defending him the loudest are the ones that know he will throw them under the bus to save his own ass. The Don ain't going down without making a deal first.
If he says this at that press conference he supposedly going to have..
DOJ warrant cites fresh evidence Trump may have moved his documents around to hide them after FBI searches
The Washington Post reported Sunday afternoon that more evidence might have become available to prove obstructions of justice for the theft of the government documents taken back to Mar-a-Lago. Trump refused to turn the documents over for nearly a year when the Justice Department and FBI got...
www.rawstory.com
Hopefully the Manhattan District Court allows cameras inside for this.