Six former Mar-a-Lago employees told BuzzFeed that Donald Trump had the ability to tap into every phone at the Palm Beach resort, and that he did so to eavesdrop on his staff throughout the mid-2000s.
[Four employees speaking to BuzzFeed anonymously] said [Trump] listened in on calls between club employees or, in some cases, between staff and guests. None of them knew of Trump eavesdropping on guests or members talking on private calls with people who were not employees of Mar-a-Lago. They also said that Trump could eavesdrop only on calls made on the club's landlines and not on calls made from guests' cell phones.Each of these four sources said they personally saw the telephone console, which some referred to as a switchboard, in Trump's bedroom. [BuzzFeed]
The allegations follow a similar rumor reported by The New York Times last month, which cited campaign staffers' concerns that their offices in Trump Tower were bugged. Trump has said in the past that he supports the NSA collecting metadata on civilians and that "I tend to err on the side of security."
Trump's spokeswoman denied the switchboard rumors, telling BuzzFeed such claims were "totally and completely untrue." Read the sources' accounts of the Mar-a-Lago tapping at BuzzFeed.
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