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On Monday afternoon, CNN released an interview with a former Mar-a-Lago employee that supports one potential explanation for President Trump’s actions. That means he may still have documents in one of his other facilities.
You will recall that the FBI’s 2022 document search was limited to Trump’s Palm Beach estate. The FBI collected numerous documents from a storage room near the pool and from Trump’s personal office.
This was the third tranche of documents recovered by the government.
After reluctantly leaving the White House in January 2021, Trump moved to Mar-a-Lago with many documents and memorabilia, which he helped pack. He also oversaw the return of numerous boxes of materials to the National Archives, and is said to have returned 15 of the more than 70 boxes he brought to Mar-a-Lago.
The Archives found material marked classified inside the box and alerted the Justice Department. This led to the issuance of federal subpoenas for any material marked as classified. In early June 2022, lawyers working for Mr. Trump handed Justice Department officials a package showing the entire set of classified documents, or those marked as classified, that Mr. Trump still had.
That wasn’t true. In August of that year, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and found over 100 more.
It has been understood for some time that lawyers compiling the dossier of documents to be handed over in response to the subpoena were not given access to all the boxes. Brian Butler, a former Mar-a-Lago employee, told CNN that the morning the Justice Department arrived to pick up the package, before the former president left for his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump He explained that he helped load boxes onto the president’s plane.
On June 2, the day before the Justice Department arrived, Mar-a-Lago employees, including Mr. Trump’s valet Walt Nauta, searched numerous documents on the premises before lawyers began searching for corresponding materials. boxes and delivered more than 20 to Trump’s residence.
Then, on June 3, Nauta contacted Butler, Mar-a-Lago’s vehicle representative.
“Walt came to me and asked if he could use our Escalade,” Butler told CNN’s Caitlan Collins. “Ever since I’ve owned an auto service, I’ve mostly managed fleets. I’d load up a minivan with all my family’s stuff, drive to the plane, load it up, and be done with it.”
Butler met people he later recognized as Trump’s lawyers at Mar-a-Lago that day. The lawyers were handed over packages of materials and allowed to tour the storage room where most of the materials are kept. They signed a document certifying that no other material existed.
That same day, Butler headed to the airport to load luggage onto the Trumps’ private plane to New Jersey. Mr. Butler told Mr. Collins that Mr. Nauta had already left and that Mr. Butler had asked him to give him an update on his way. Butler said he was waiting “at a nearby store.”
“I texted him, hey, I’m on my way. He followed me. He stopped his car and caught up behind me,” Butler told Collins. “We got to the airport. We ended up loading up all our luggage. And he had a lot of boxes.”
“Did you notice he had a box?” Collins asked.
“Oh, yes, those are the boxes that were in the indictment,” Butler replied. “A white banker’s box? That’s what I remember loading.”
Butler helped load 10 to 15 boxes onto the plane. He told Collins he never saw them return.
Granted, those boxes didn’t necessarily contain sensitive material. But remember the context. This is the moment when Trump’s lawyers were turning over to the government materials taken from some of the boxes that belonged to Trump. Perhaps the June 2 movement was simply aimed at moving unrelated materials to New Jersey when President Trump leaves. Or perhaps the material was transferred to Bedminster.
We know that there was probably at least one classified document in Bedminster after President Trump left office. That’s what President Trump carried in 2021 when he spoke with authors working on a book about former chief of staff Mark Meadows. The document, which President Trump referred to in a recording later released by CNN, allegedly contained military plans. CBS News reported in June that the document was not among those mentioned in President Trump’s subsequent indictment. His lawyer said no such document was found.
His lawyers conducted a general search of Bedminster for confidential material in December 2022, but were unsuccessful. Perhaps this was because there were no classified documents on the premises. Or, as happened at Mar-a-Lago the previous June, they simply weren’t given the opportunity to see where the documents were kept.
That is the fundamental difference we are asked to consider. Is it a coincidence that the box was moved before the lawyers looking for classified materials arrived, and the next day the box was airlifted to Bedminster? Or is it possible that at some point in the last few years, President Trump has given the benefit of the doubt? Have I lost it?
There is one other element of Butler’s interview worth mentioning. A while later, he was talking to his friend and colleague Carlos de Oliveira. Mr. de Oliveira was added to the original indictment targeting Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta last year. Butler said he and de Oliveira were discussing the classified documents case when de Oliveira said, “Look, we’re all dirty and we’re all moving boxes.” , he said.
Butler replied that the only time the boxes were moved was to load them onto the plane.
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