WTH went on down in Mar-a-Lago?
I’ve been getting confused about all the latest ins and outs of the Mar-a-lago case with the boxes going in and out and who took what when. So I asked on twitter and people kindly pointed me to this speculation based upon various reports:
THREAD: SPECULATION: This is what I think happened with the documents at Mar-a-Lago based on bits and pieces assembled from public reporting. THIS IS SPECULATION. 1/
May 11, 2022: The Office of Donald J. Trump is subpoenaed for all documents with classified markings. Trump asks his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, if there’s a way to defy the subpoena. Corcoran tells him there’s not and memorialized that conversation in detailed notes. 2/
Trump contacts his valet Walt nauta and tells him to move documents boxes from the storage area to his residence, and then Donald goes through the boxes and removes the classified documents he wants to keep. 3/
Trump then tells Corcoran to search the storage room. Walt Nauta unlocks the door for Corcoran and Corcoran searches, taking pool breaks at times, and tells Walt to wait outside. 4/
Corcoran finds 38 documents marked classified and puts them in a Redweld envelope and double tapes it, and tells Walt he’s done and to lock up. He asks is he should search anywhere else and is told NO. 5/
Walt then starts moving the boxes trump went through back into the storage room on June 2nd. His buddy Carlos sees him and offers to help. The replace the boxes and lock up the room. 6/
Corcoran calls up the DoJ and says “I searched. I have some stuff. Come on down tomorrow and get it.” DoJ sends Bratt and some others because Bratt has clearance. Corcoran asks Bobb to sign a letter saying they conducted a diligent search. 7/
Bobb says she’s not comfortable signing the letter unless he adds “to the best of my knowledge”, so Corcoran makes the edit and she signs it. DoJ shows up June 3rd and collects the envelope with the 38 classified documents and the letter. 8/
DoJ asks to see the storage room, and Corcoran lets them in, but doesn’t let them look through the boxes. (Was he told not to let them, or does he know there’s classified in them thar boxes?) Bratt notices the surveillance camera outside the storage room. 9/
The same day the DoJ is there, Walt and his friend Carlos pack some document boxes in an SUB headed to Bedminster for the summer. Perhaps that footage led to a subpoena of trump aides at Bedminster. 10/
On June 24th, DoJ subpoenas the Trump org for the surveillance footage from the camera outside the storage room. The same day, trump and Corcoran have a phone call about the subpoena, which DoJ knows about because of the crime fraud exception. 11/
DoJ sees Walt moving boxes on the video and asks him what the fuck. Walt lies to them, so they show him the footage and he admits it, and tells them Donald directed him to move the boxes. Then in July, DoJ subpoenas more footage from other places in Mar a Lago. 12/
At some point, Trump has his Save America PAC hire and pay for lawyers for Walt and Carlos. In July, Carlos calls the Mar-a-Lago IT guy and asks how long the footage is kept, and other questions about the cameras. Trump hires a lawyer for the IT guy, too. 13/
DoJ then subpoenas the software company for all the footage because there appear to be gaps or technical glitches in the tapes, and they subpoena the Calamaris who run security for the trump org. 14/
The surveillance footage provides probable cause that not all the documents were handed over, so they get a search warrant signed, head in, and find over 100 more documents in the storage area and the residence. 15/
Donald wants to know everything DoJ got during their search so in September, judge shops for Aileen Cannon and he sues to appoint a special master to 1. see what they have and 2. Delay the inevitable. As with all things, he loses. 16/
Meanwhile, the aides from Bedminster produce the audio about the Iran document from the July 2021 meeting, which maybe leads Jack Smith to subpoena LIV golf docs and real estate deals with Saudi Arabia and six other foreign countries. 17/
Jack notices that Vivek Ramaswamy’s firm is working with LIV and hands that off to the FARA unit, who force them to register as foreign agents for Saudi Arabia. 18/
That’s what I think happened based on public reporting. Again, this is speculation. END/
Reporting has people moving boxes in and out of the storage room on different days and the lawyers finding some documents and not others and I just lost the thread at some point. This seems like a plausible interpretation of the facts as we know them.
If Trump had the boxes moved and went through them and withheld certain documents after being told by his lawyer that he had to comply with the subpoena, he committed obstruction of justice. The question of whether he moved some other documents to Bedminster or showed them to people or held on to them for another reason remains to be seen. But it does appear that there were some shenanigans with those boxes which explains why Trump keeps insisting that he has a “perfect right” to do anything he wants. Even his lawyer made that argument on CNN this week: