Former Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney bluntly stated that whoever attempted to rat on former President Trump would have to be “very close” to him and know where he was storing documents at Mar-a-Lago.
(Video Credit: CNN)
“I didn’t know there was a safe at Mar-a-Lago and I was the chief of staff for 15 months,” Mulvaney told CNN’s “New Day” in an interview.
“This would be someone who was handling things on day to day, who knew where documents were, so it would be somebody very close inside the president, my guess is there’s probably six or eight people who had that kind of information,” he contended.
Newsweek reported earlier in the week that the raid at Mar-a-Lago was sparked by an unnamed informant who told the FBI there were documents still in Trump’s possession and where to find them. The Wall Street Journal reportedly confirmed there was a “rat” in Trump’s inner circle.
If true, it would be nothing new as numerous individuals have betrayed the former president while in and out of office. Many of them have done so for monetary gain. The media has lapped up every single bit of it.
Two takes on the raid. It is either
1) The most egregious political hit job our government has ever undertaken against a politician in US history, or
2) Evidence of the most significant criminal investigation of a politician in US history.
The DOJ needs to show us which it is.— Mick Mulvaney (@MickMulvaney) August 9, 2022
The raid follows Trump previously turning over 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives. His attorneys were working with federal authorities regarding other items. That evidently wasn’t enough and someone ran to the DOJ and the FBI claiming there were other documents at the private club. There is no indication that anything of note was found during the raid.
Two months prior to the raid, FBI officials requested that a stronger lock be installed on the room where Trump stores documents. The former president reportedly complied with that request.
To many, the raid looked like a fishing expedition that was politically motivated to keep Trump from running for the presidency in 2024. Thirty FBI agents showed up at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence with a warrant while he was out of town. They searched the premises for over nine hours, breaking into Trump’s safe, which was allegedly empty, and then pawing through former first lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe.
Then the search warrant would have been very narrow.. and not a 10 hour camp job. They would have known where to look and what they were looking for.. right?
This smells of fishing.— Greg 🇺🇸☦️🎸🌵 (@Zedoriah13) August 11, 2022
Mulvaney, who is no longer in touch with Trump, called for calm from both sides over the incident.
“Maybe the best thing for everybody to do right now in order to calm things down and sort of reset the playing field is for Trump to come forward with the search warrant that he received and the receipt of the documents that were taken, and the DOJ to come forward with the affidavit that they swore out to a judge,” Mulvaney commented, attempting to straddle the political divide.
Sounds like Trump is calling Garland's bluff.
The DOJ needs to release the affidavit. https://t.co/c7qqUy5Ven
— Mick Mulvaney (@MickMulvaney) August 12, 2022
Mulvaney locked horns with CNN host Brianna Keilar, calling the raid over documents “absurd.”
“You folks know I’ve been critical of the president’s conduct on January 6th,” Mulvaney remarked. “But if it is just about documents, that’s almost absurd. That’s the same thing that the FBI was investigating Hillary Clinton for, and I don’t remember them invading her home. If you are Republican, the reason you’re asking to act the way you are, the last 48 hours, is that you really do feel like you’re not getting fair treatment from your own government and that’s a very dangerous place to be.”
“But there are pictures of documents Donald Trump flushed down the toilet,” Keilar protested. “Does he not get the benefit of the doubt as well?”
“Sure, I think that’s worth investigating,” Mulvaney replied. “Keep in mind, what was that piece of paper? It had Elise Stefanik’s name on it.”
If the Mar-a-Lago raid is really about documents, it makes me wonder if the local police can send the SWAT team to kick in your front door to get your overdue library books.
The government better have a better reason for this invasion.
— Mick Mulvaney (@MickMulvaney) August 9, 2022
“Mick, we can’t — in fairness, Mick, it was torn up,” Keilar objected. “We don’t know what was on it. That’s just a fact.”
“It says Stefanik on it,” Mulvaney repeated.
“One word, it said a lot of other — we don’t know what the whole document said,” Keilar disingenuously pointed out. “You can see Stefanik’s name was on there but you can’t extrapolate from just one word.”
“I’m not defending destroying documents,” said Mulvaney. “I don’t think this was related to the Presidential Records Act directly. It is not a criminal statute. It is in code 44 of the USC, not 18, the criminal statute. I’m not really sure how the Presidential Records Act ties in. Yes, the president has to keep almost everything, but not everything when you are the president. Again, if we’re talking about documents, that’s part of my point here, Brianna. You just invaded the home of a former president of the United States, to look for documents? Why was it so important? Why couldn’t it be handled by a subpoena?”
Axios published images from a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman earlier in the week purportedly showing two sets of notes stuffed into toilets, one of which is said to be a White House bathroom and the other from a bathroom on a presidential foreign trip. To many, the accusation lacks credibility and the pictures look staged.
NEW IN AXIOS: Trump denied flushing documents as president, as I learned during reporting last year for CONFIDENCE MAN. A Trump White House source recently provided PHOTOS of paper with Trump’s handwriting in two different toilets via @mikeallen https://t.co/wv6rrupO1n
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 8, 2022
Trump proceeded to call Haberman a “maggot” over the accusation and heatedly denied flushing the documents.
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
"Yet another fake book, by a reporter who knows nothing about me, Maggot Haberman of the New York Times, is making up stories about my relationship with foreign leaders. She claims I speak with Kim Jong Un of North Korea,… pic.twitter.com/MnrguiZ1AN
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) February 11, 2022
Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
- Marine Corps to relax dress standards in midst of camouflage uniform shortage - October 2, 2023
- New York ordered to cough up almost half a million in legal fees to NRA after SCOTUS victory - October 2, 2023
- Serial shoplifter sets store clerk on FIRE with stolen lighter fluid in crime-ridden Bay area - October 2, 2023
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
