A Secret Trump Trip To Mar-A-Lago Just Before The FBI Knocked On The Door? Probably Nothing.
A Secret Trump Trip To Mar-A-Lago Just Before The FBI Knocked On The Door? Probably Nothing.
WITCH HUNT!
The hits just keep coming in the case of Donald Trump’s stolen classified secrets. While the world’s most unqualified judge entertains every moronic thing Trump’s lawyers throw at her, even arguments questioning the constitutionality of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment, we keep learning more and more little details about just how bad Trump’s crimes against the Republic really were in this case.
ABC News broke the story that just before the infamous search where the feds showed up at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve documents Trump had stolen and was still concealing, he took a secret trip down there for something or another.
More of the same story about Trump touching documents with his paws and personally inspecting them before the feds could get to them? The ones he referred to as “MY DOCUMENTS”? Sure seems so.
The timeframe here, if you’ll remember, is 2022. The Mar-a-Lago search happened in August. This trip, which ABC News describes, according to its sources, as “highly unusual,” happened July 10 to 12, just after he finished doing a rally on July 9 in Anchorage, Alaska. At that time, of course, he’s usually spending the summer at Bedminster in New Jersey, and not traipsing down to hot South Florida.
A trip to Mar-a-Lago taken by former President Donald Trump that aides allegedly "kept quiet" just weeks before FBI agents searched the property for classified materials in his possession raised suspicions among special counsel Jack Smith's team as a potential additional effort to obstruct the government's classified documents investigation, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
One witness reportedly said to investigators that Trump had gone down there “checking on the boxes.” ABC News notes that the timing was even more weird because during that particular time, the part of Mar-a-Lago where Trump lives was undergoing construction. Of course, it’s possible Trump used that for the cover story:
Other witnesses who were questioned by Smith's team said they were led to believe that Trump returned to check on the status of the renovations, said sources. […]
"They were keeping this one quiet ... nobody knew about this trip," one witness with direct knowledge of the trip told investigators, according to sources familiar with the witness' statements.
ABC News reminds us that earlier that summer, Trump had the lock changed on a closet in the residence literally “while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago's basement searching for classified documents in a storage room that he was told contained all such documents,” and that his aide and co-defendant Walt Nauta also took another surprise trip to Mar-a-Lago that summer, whereupon according to Jack Smith he worked to get security camera footage deleted.
But with this trip, it was super-weird. The plans seemed to change suddenly, and so did the aircraft manifests. And Nauta was all over this one too, looks like:
Nauta, who traveled with Trump on the trip, sent a number of text messages to close staff members indicating that the Florida visit was to be kept quiet, according to sources familiar with the contents of the messages.
"I'm pretty sure [Trump] wants minimal people around on Monday," Nauta texted one longtime Trump employee just one day before Trump arrived in Florida, according to a message sources detailed to ABC News.
And on July 8, when one Trump Organization employee reached out to Nauta wanting to confirm rumors of a Trump visit so proper preparations could be made, Nauta made clear he wanted the trip to remain "discreet," sources familiar with the communications said. The sources said Nauta sent a text message to the employee that included emojis with zippers over the mouth, which is often used to convey a secret.
Nauta also wrote a message to [aide Carlos] De Oliveira on July 7 that said "Coming down to FL soon" with shushing emojis to indicate the visit be kept quiet, according to another text message described by sources.
Sounds like more obstruction, at least to our untrained eye!
We sure are glad lawyers are having to waste time in Aileen Cannon’s courtroom proving Jack Smith even had a right to be born.
[ABC News]
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Wannabe mobsters plus emoji!!!! This coulda been the premise for a hilariously dark HBO comedy. But no, it's one more chapter in the Stupid Saga of Trump's Henchmen.
What are they thinking? That the FBI doesn't have the secret emoji decoder book?
"A trip to Mar-a-Lago taken by former President Donald Trump that aides allegedly "kept quiet" just weeks before FBI agents searched the property for classified materials in his possession raised suspicions among special counsel Jack Smith's team as a potential additional effort to obstruct the government's classified documents investigation, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News."
Yes, um, listen.
WHEN DO THESE "AIDES" GET TRIED EN MASSE FOR ATTEMPTED OBSTRUCTION OF MULTIPLE FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS???