Special counsel questioned witnesses about 2 rooms FBI didn't search inside Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence: Sources

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

February 1, 2024, 5:53 PM


Special counsel Jack Smith's team has questioned several witnesses about a closet and a so-called "hidden room" inside former President Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago that the FBI didn't check while searching the estate in August 2022, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

As described to ABC News, the line of questioning in several interviews ahead of Trump's indictment last year on classified document charges suggests that -- long after the FBI seized dozens of boxes and more than 100 documents marked classified from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate -- Smith's team was trying to determine if there might still be more classified documents there.

According to sources, some investigators involved in the case came to later believe that the closet, which was locked on the day of the search, should have been opened and checked.

As investigators would later learn, Trump allegedly had the closet's lock changed while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago's basement, searching for classified documents in a storage room that he was told would have all such documents. Trump's alleged efforts to conceal classified documents from both the FBI and his own attorney are a key part of Smith's indictment against Trump in Florida.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/special-counsel-questioned-witnesses-2-rooms-fbi-search/story?id=106826552

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. I still don't understand why every property he owns wasn't thoroughly searched.

It seems to me that when he swore there were no more documents and more were found, that would amount to probable cause to search every place he owns.

[Irish_Dem]

3. I have said the same thing. Of course there was probable cause.

The minute you find stolen classified documents in one property, there is not probable to search
other properties? That is what people here kept saying.

I say the FBI and DOJ were and still are afraid of Trump.

[Kablooie]

28. There were and probably are MAGA in the FBI and DOJ.

They would do everything they could to minimize damage to Trump.

[Irish_Dem]

29. Yes quite obviously there are Trump loyalists in the FBI.

I read the FBI didn't even want to go in and take the documents.

[machoneman]

50. True! That FBI manager was named elsewhere but he finally gave in. Hang that bastard!

[Snoopy 7]

46. I remember

when trump was running against Hillary there was a story about how the FBI was like a trump faternaty.

[Irish_Dem]

51. Yep. And they did everything they could to interfere with the election.

[Ponietz]

4. Chris Wray

[ancianita]

31. He came up under Mueller. Can't trust him anymore because he implies the FBI's overwhelmed, but offers no solutions

that I know of.

[Ponietz]

43. The nation's top law enforcement officer sat on his ass during the mayhem

It’s the Trumpstank.

Curious his former law firm represented Rosneft and Gazprom during his tenure there. If he were a lawyer today in civil private practice, imputed disqualification rules prohibit his taking a materially adverse position to the scope of his firm’s former representation. Ethical rules impute disqualification because of a lawyer’s continuing duty to former clients to maintain confidentiality. Those Russian energy giants would disqualify him in a civil case. I presume Putin would disqualify him in a criminal case.

In the criminal arena that appearance generates suspicion in a reasonably prudent person. Hand-picked successor to the castrato Comey, Mueller, spies, interfering in investigations, Gaetz and Jordan hiding their tracks by summoning him to testify, accusing him of politicizing the FBI to help Biden. That appearance of impropriety, at the very beginning, is a certainty, for me, 7 years later. He’s also a member of the Federalist Society.

Didn’t Wray watch events on TV about the same time as the human canker on 1/6/21? He failed to protect our nation’s capital during an emergency; that’s unforgivable.

[ancianita]

44. Looks that way. Plus his FBI chief of counterterrorism lied, saying the FBI isn't "authorized" to monitor social media

The hell it isn't. "Threat Assessment" is the FBI's official core mission. Wray failed to lead and assess his assessors.

The [Senate] report shows that the FBI and DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) collected tips and intelligence that threatened or predicted the kind of violence that occurred on Jan. 6. This included plans to come to Washington, D.C. armed, threats against politicians and opposing protesters, and sharing of maps of the Capitol’s tunnel system.

Some of this information had been previously reported, but Erik Dahl, an associate professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School who has written extensively about the specific intelligence failures in the lead up to 9/11, told Just Security in an email that while reading the report he was surprised by “the sheer volume of warnings that were in the system before January 6.”

The agencies, however, largely did not deem those threats to be credible or imminent. Many were dismissed as hyperbole. The report determines that this was in part due to a mistaken belief that the Capitol could not be stormed.

Among other recommendations, the committee states that “the agencies should assess potential biases toward discounting intelligence that indicates an unforeseen or unprecedented attack or event.”

https://www.justsecurity.org/87214/fbi-dhs-failed-to-take-jan-6-threats-seriously-senate-report-says/

[Grasswire2]

53. Trump knew that Wray was corruptible from the beginninng. A mob boss dream LEO.

How?

Because Wray was an "inappropriate informant" in the Rove investigation, causing Ashcroft to recuse from the matter.

IOW, Wray was dirty,

Trump knew it. A mob boss values corruptibility very highly.

[onecaliberal]

39. Whatever they would have done to any one of us should be done to him NOW. Today.

I'm over the bullshit with this sick son of a bitch.

[AllaN01Bear]

41. hear hear. me too also.

[AllaN01Bear]

42. esp the overseas golf courses .

[Hermit-The-Prog]

45. Yeah, traitortrump's Scotland golf course is closer to his master Putin.

[chowder66]

2. K&R

[twodogsbarking]

5. Trump's reply. I have done nothing wrong. They are my documents. Fuck you.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. AND the Presidential Records Act says I'm allowed.

What a Trumper told me.

I read the act. Yes it is ambiguous and a too lengthy pile of bureaucratic jargon. Prime prey for the likes trump. If there wasn't a crystal clear law, he pushed the envelope. Have always said he never had people to determine what was legal..he had people to determine where he could do whatever. F TRADITION

[FeelingBlue]

6. Search everywhere...

Including Ivana's grave.

[japple]

7. My thoughts exactly. I'll bet there are bodies buried under all of his properties.

eom

[Maraya1969]

25. Is there a video of this? I've looked on Youtube and can't find any

[H2O Man]

8. Recomended.

This is so important!

[58Sunliner]

10. WTH??

[underpants]

11. It has a basement? It's awfully close to the water

Growing up almost surrounded by water, I knew of one neighborhood in the area that could have basements. At least that’s the only place I saw a basement.


Oh and this.

Sources also told ABC News that FBI agents didn't do more in part because they felt like they had been at Mar-a-Lago long enough. But the senior FBI official disputed that, saying, "Discussions took place that day about additional areas of the property and it was determined that actions already taken met the parameters of the search warrant."

[Shipwack]

15. Just more proof that the FBI is compromised.

Certain parts of it have been for years, like the agents in New York that were helping Giuliani against Hillary.

Then again, maybe it's been entirely corrupt since Hoover... I heard once that the director I as always Republican, for some reason...

[underpants]

16. I got blowback on this recently but they clearly dragged their feet in this

and yes, Rudy’s influence was surely part of it. He has tentacles in there.

[Ponietz]

47. Garland gets the grief but Wray mucked it up

[ancianita]

30. Here's a year old Politico article on where its dysfunctionality lies.

Notice the string of FBI general counsels since Weissman in Mueller days. Note the ongoing org alienation from Andrew Weissman.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/20/fbi-discrimination-case-00087650

A gender discrimination trial in Washington, D.C., shined a harsh spotlight on one of the most important legal offices in the U.S. government, portraying it as a hotbed of dysfunction, turf wars, mismanagement and paranoia....

The trial drew little notice inside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., where numerous high-profile Jan. 6 defendants were simultaneously standing trial, and grand juries probing potential crimes by Trump and his allies remain active. But the proceedings offered a peek inside the secretive confines of the FBI — describing degrees of dysfunction that are rarely aired, particularly by the FBI insiders themselves.

The list of trial witnesses included Jim Baker, who testified that when he took over as FBI general counsel in 2014, his staff of about 200 lawyers were burned out, locked in bureaucratic turf battles and wracked by fear of their own colleagues. Baker said that in the early part of his tenure, some employees were so afraid to raise concerns in front of others that they “frequently” slipped anonymous notes under his door overnight — typewritten to conceal handwriting.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. Thought story said adjacent to his bedroom? I need to reread.

[underpants]

21. It just mentioned that there is a basement. Had no idea.

As investigators would later learn, Trump allegedly had the closet's lock changed while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago's basement, searching for classified documents in a storage room that he was told would have all such documents.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

38. Remember reading a long time ago about him asking someone

To change a lock (but after raid. And I thought giant red flag. He would be the last person in the world I'd think would care about something so mundane. Unless nefarious.

Yes, story did mention basement. Maybe his bedroom is in basement lol

[Wicked Blue]

12. The FBI should seize the entire property,

make it off-limits, and search it from top to bottom.

[republianmushroom]

13. Since when doesn't the FBI search every room when they issues a search warrant, locked or not.

Oh, wait, this is the new DoJ, don't want to seem political. Got it, and they didn't.
Also didn't do their job.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. Because the 4th Amendment says --

Fourth Amendment

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

(snip)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment

They had agents go there several times in the spring before the August seizure and that was so they could basically determine the layout of the facility and start to compile a list of rooms and what was presumably in them. They got that info after interviewing the lawyers and some employees and that was used to develop the search and seizure warrant.

If this hadn't been done carefully, they could have evidence ruled inadmissable in court.

When people see all these cops manufacturing reasons to search a vehicle, if the ducks weren't in a row, you never hear about the aftermath in the news when their case gets thrown out due to the search/seizure having no plausible "probable cause" and the warrant having all kinds of defects.

[republianmushroom]

19. If this hadn't been done carefully, they could have evidence ruled inadmissible in court.

As it is, they don't know if they had all the doc's or not. Do they. They could have gone to the building dept. and asked to see the plans of Mar-A-Largo.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. Well in reality

you get to the point where if there are 1000 classified documents illegally in their possession, they will not then have "1000 charges" (they would be laughed out of court). They will select some of the most critical ones to go with to charge and the rest are "stipulated".

There were several articles (and OPs) that were posted leading up to what went on with their initial trips there, and if you look at what was posted in the affidavit and property inventory, they were pretty explicit.

This was the 38-page affidavit that summarizes what they did leading up to the search and seizure - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22343178-220805-affidavit-less-redacted-220914

[republianmushroom]

59. Top FBI agents did not want to raid Mar-a-Lago -- but DOJ prosecutors pushed them anyway: report

Top FBI agents did not want to raid Mar-a-Lago — but DOJ prosecutors pushed them anyway: report

https://www.theblaze.com/news/report-fbi-did-not-want-mar-a-lago-raid

Senior FBI agents reportedly voiced opposition to raiding Mar-a-Lago last year, but Department of Justice prosecutors made them go ahead anyway.

Months before the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago to recover classified documents, there were intense internal deliberations between the FBI and DOJ prosecutors, the Washington Post reported.

NOTICE THE WORD "MONTHS".

[timms139]

24. If it is part

of the place to be searched and it can hold the items to be searched for it can be searched . You can't look in a matchbox if you are only searching for a rifle etc. I wrote and excuted many search warrants .

[intheflow]

32. Okay.

But papers in a newly locked closet adjacent to the room you’ve just found boxes of stolen documents? That seems within the scope of any warrant.

[Ponietz]

48. There was probable cause to search the entire premises and the warrant so indicted

Qué no?

[BumRushDaShow]

49. Here is the affidavit (with redactions)

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22343178-220805-affidavit-less-redacted-220914

You can decide.

They apparently were mostly basing it off of what NARA requested be turned in that wasn't returned when asked, and stumbled on some other stuff. I.e., NARA (like most federal agencies) CANNOT initiate criminal warrants on their own and must use DOJ to do that for them, but only AFTER they have exhausted their own internal procedures for compliance (something that many DUers refuse to accept).

[Ponietz]

54. The "premises" was covered in the warrant

and the “premises” was not thoroughly searched — a monumental failure. The exigency doctrine would cover hidden/unknown areas discovered “on the premises” during the search.

Homeland Security is interested in compromised FBI agents, presumably, and vested with police powers. I suspect the Mayorkas impeachment is, again, another attempt by these stupid, craven cowards to cover their tracks and take the heat off Wray.

It’s obvious. It’s staring us in the face. Who will police the police?
:bangs head on wall:

[BumRushDaShow]

55. Well as you know, the FBI Director has a 10-year term

and it takes quite a bit to remove one ahead of time. Wray has 3 years left on the term. I suppose folks wished that Hoover had been under some kind of term limit.

When this story first broke and "aftermath" articles came out (some of which I posted back then), they were apparently in there with the search and seizure early August 2022, for at least 8 hours, and it was timed for when 45 was out of town in NYC dealing with his other "legal issues" (i.e., the case that is about to reach a final outcome in "mid-February" ).

I'll also note that when this was all done (the April/May 2022 trips and interviews and the August search/seizure), it was BEFORE Jack Smith was brought in to wrangle the various investigations to create a cohesive framework for prosecution going forward. He started as Special Counsel in November of 2022.

A couple media sources had a 2022 timeline (I know the NYT did) but here is one from ABC that is good - https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/key-developments-related-fbis-mar-lago-search-timeline/story?id=88405091

(the above describes a June "visit" but IIRC, there were earlier ones)

From what it seems the current articles are suggesting is that new info has been obtained from witnesses that might not have been known back in in 2022 about "hidden rooms". Remember that Smith has access to whatever was obtained of security video footage and may have spotted something from that to use for questioning. I believe that video wasn't obtained at the initial search/seizure but came in later.

[Ponietz]

56. Thanks for that

Any thoughts on the Mayorkas impeachment?

[BumRushDaShow]

57. If the GOP loses one more of their members (and Buck is a "solid no" )

then that is not happening.

The "undecideds" are being coy about which way they might vote but we'll have to see if the vote is delayed or whether they do a Wiley E. Coyote cliff leap with a vote that might spectacularly fail. Emmer (their Whip) has been tight-lipped. They are already backing away big time, from the Biden impeachment, with members quoted using the same talking points, so will have to see if talking points emerge for this one.

If they can gin up some other outrage-of-the-day like feigning concern about the Iraq/Syria retaliation bombings, they might have cover to delay the vote. They also got on James Lankford's (R-OK) bad side dissing his Senate border bill and proclaiming it "DOA", so the issue is whether they can pivot to taking credit for "border security" or will continue to wallow in their vindictive stupidity and ensure a ton of Democratic ads that will showcase their hypocrisy about a "border solution", while the GOP-controlled House gets labeled as the "least productive" in history.

[Ponietz]

58. Since public security is the principle responsibility of Homeland Security --

I imagine DHS is deeply interested in a compromised FBI and suspect it’s the real reason the traitor scum hot-buttoned the Mayorkas impeachment in the House; the border issue is a straw man and they don’t want it resolved. Too many guilty among them.

[BumRushDaShow]

61. Well the GOP's fixation on "border" is their annual clown show

and the damage from the previous administration's family separation policy is STILL being rectified and it now has a court settlement forbidding the practice for the next 8 years (as of 2 months ago - this past December).

But with respect to DHS and the FBI, the FBI is not under DHS purview and was one of the agencies that remained under DOJ.

Before I retired, my agency was in a shared multi-agency GSA building with agencies from 12 Departments, and I remember post-9/11 and the birth of DHS when they cobbled together agencies from Agriculture (e.g., some from APHIS who worked on plant imports), Treasury (Customs), Immigration (INS), Transportation (creation of TSA), DOE (some of the nuclear-monitoring agencies), FEMA (was included but after the disastrous reign of Skeltor, that lead to FEMA being removed as standalone again), and other standalones like the Secret Service.

But the primary "law enforcement" entities like the FBI, U.S. Marshals, & ATF (as well as Bureau of Prisons) remained under DOJ. The CIA remained standalone but got bundled under an intelligence infrastructure.

I used to interact with (work-wise) and socialize with people from Customs and APHIS in my building and remember their angst when pulled into the unknown. It was such a bizarre thing to witness real-time for as long as it took to create that.

In a nutshell, DHS was the GOP's Frankenstein monster made of disparate parts and pieces to create an unnecessary Department that was filled with BLOAT, easily surpassing in size what they spent decades whining about what HHS had become after HEW was split into a Health Department and an Education Department.

But I will say that the FBI isn't the one to watch, the Secret Service IS and that is under DHS. And there were all kinds of "up close and personal" SS agents with 45 during January 6, and who know about or maybe even participated in all KINDS of shenanigans that day and down in Mar-a-Lago as well.

Remember the mysterious wiped SS text messages?

Given the FBI who went in there probably came out of the Miami Office and FL is a red state, there is that issue, but the more active potential participants to steer people away during any of the interviews at and casing of the facility while 45 was there, would have been the SS and there had to be some kind of agreements between them and the FBI (as it is, at the court appearances, he has SS with him at all times, and that adds the extra hoop-jumps for scheduling, etc).

[Ponietz]

62. Thanks for this

[republianmushroom]

22. Or possibly,

The FBI Desperately Wants to Let Trump Off the Hook

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/fbi-trump-mar-a-lago-raid-prosecution/673251/

Inside the Mar-a-Lago Raid: Prosecutors and FBI Feuded Over Trump Search, According to Washington Post Deep-Dive

https://www.mediaite.com/print/inside-the-mar-a-lago-raid-prosecutors-and-fbi-feuded-over-trump-search-according-to-washington-post-deep-dive/

[Laura PourMeADrink]

23. Give them a pass?. Past "president". BUT they blew it.

They were walking on eggshells as it was. What past president would hoard secrets? NONE except trump. Docs probably long gone now.

He is a scourge on the human race. ( proven by House Committee he hid Covid and withheld PPE from blue state doctors and nurses)!!!!! I can only think of a handful of rebukes who are even close to this abominable.

We must stop him.

PS. Why WE don't know what's missing, immediately is absurd!!!!! I must log in to get a freaking pedicure.

[PlutosHeart]

14. Well that was dumb.

Door locked. Take someone's word for what was there? Shelves? Like to put files on? Good grief.

[orleans]

27. so way to go fbi -- looks like someone was ... never mind nt

[Vinca]

33. If the FBI encountered a locked door at your house, they'd break it down.

I've always wondered if they ever tracked down the valuable gifts given to him in the White House that were supposed to have been turned over to the archives.

[Novara]

34. What a massive, massive fuckup

Remember they said that some documents were never recovered? Well, I'm sure they won't be now even if they searched all his properties now. They are long gone.

This infuriates me. This is the easiest case to prove of all of the 91 felony counts he's facing. It's a slam-dunk. Well, except for Cannon, who has her thumb on the scale.

When have you ever heard of the FBI failing to turn the residence of a drug kingpin, for example, completely inside-out? They'd leave no stone unturned in order to gather as much evidence as possible in order to secure a conviction. they obviously treated him with kid gloves. AGAIN.

Wow, this is infuriating.

[Chakaconcarne]

35. Maybe those locations contained documents that incriminated others...

He could very well have had these documents with the purpose of Kompromat over other government officials...

Perhaps even the reason why all of this.....all of this is taking so long...and how he has a judge ruling for him in this case.

[PTL_Mancuso]

36. Trump, being of the Mobster Mentality. . .

. . . would not be the Slobfather without having documents/media showing frenemies in compromising positions. This might been just too scary for anyone at the time to unlock.

[bluestarone]

37. Get down and find out WHO made the decision to NOT SEARCH that door

WHO? Gotta get this one answered, and WHY it wasn't? Jesus Christ, i swear TFG has monsters helping him at every turn!!

[Wild blueberry]

40. K&R

[maptap22]

52. Check the grave

Why else would he bury his ex on his golf course?

[ificandream]

60. They need to do another search.

I hope they do.