DOJ reportedly has cooperating witness inside Mar-a-Lago in Trump classified documents investigation
Federal prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents "have obtained the confidential cooperation of a person who has worked for him at Mar-a-Lago" as they focus on determining if Trump ordered boxes of sensitive material moved from a storage room at his Florida estate as the Justice Department was trying to recover them, The New York Times reports, citing multiple people familiar with the investigation.
Investigators, led by special counsel Jack Smith, "have developed what multiple people familiar with the investigation say is a wealth of testimony and evidence" about Trump's behavior as the Justice Department stepped into an effort by the National Archives to retrieve documents Trump improperly took home with him from the White House, the Times reports. "The existence of an insider witness, whose identity has not been disclosed, could be a significant step in the investigation," and the witness "is said to have provided investigators with a picture of the storage room where the material had been held."
The unidentified cooperating witness is part of a flurry of activity in Smith's investigation, including a wave of subpoenas and grand jury testimony, the Times reports. Those subpoenaed include security officials at the Trump Organization who may have information about security cameras at Mar-a-Lago as well as nearly all Mar-a-Lago employees. Smith is also investigating Trump's involvement in attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A Trump spokesperson called the investigation "a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt" that is harassing "anyone who has worked for President Trump."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
How space travel changes your brainUnder the Radar Space shifts the position of the brain in the skull, causing orientation problems that could complicate plans to live on the Moon or Mars
-
How Iran protest death tolls have been politicisedIn the Spotlight Regime blames killing of ‘several thousand’ people on foreign actors and uses videos of bodies as ‘psychological warfare’ to scare protesters
-
Departure(s): Julian Barnes’ ‘triumphant’ final book blends fact with fictionThe Week Recommends The Booker prize-winning novelist ponders the ‘struggle to find happiness and accept life’s ending’
-
How Iran protest death tolls have been politicisedIn the Spotlight Regime blames killing of ‘several thousand’ people on foreign actors and uses videos of bodies as ‘psychological warfare’ to scare protesters
-
Trump’s Greenland ambitions push NATO to the edgeTalking Points The military alliance is facing its worst-ever crisis
-
Venezuela: Does Trump have a plan?Feature Oil and democracy are both on the table
-
Trump ties Greenland threat to failed Nobel Peace bidSpeed Read ‘I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,’ Trump said
-
The Board of Peace: Donald Trump’s ‘alternative to the UN’The Explainer Body set up to oversee reconstruction of Gaza could have broader mandate to mediate other conflicts and create a ‘US-dominated alternative to the UN’
-
Can Starmer continue to walk the Trump tightrope?Today's Big Question PM condemns US tariff threat but is less confrontational than some European allies
-
A new serif in town: Trump’s font culture warIn the Spotlight As the State Department shifts from Calibri to Times New Roman, is this just a ‘typographic dispute’, or the ‘latest battleground’ of a culture war
-
Trump threatens Minnesota with Insurrection ActSpeed Read The law was passed in 1807 but has rarely been used
