Donald Trump watched the FBI Mar-a-Lago raid live from Trump Tower in New York via the security camera feeds at his Florida home, his attorney said.
Christina Bobb, one of Trump’s attorneys, said during an interview with right-wing media network Real America’s Voice that the Trump probably had a better view than her and she was in Mar-a-Lago when the raid took place.
“I think the people in New York — President Trump and his family — probably had a better view than I did because they had the CCTV, but they could see I was stuck there in the parking lot collecting paper and asking questions.” respond. But they were actually able to see the whole thing, so they actually have a better idea of what’s going on inside,” she said.
She added that the surveillance cameras were only turned off for a “very short time” while agents spoke to lawyers about being on.
“So first of all, [the agents] said you have to turn off all cameras and of course the staff complied,” she noted. “Then the lawyers stepped in and said, you don’t really need to turn them off. So shortly after they turn them back on. So the cameras were only turned off for a very short time.’
Eric Trump told in an exclusive interview that the 30 agents who arrived at the property asked staff to turn off the security cameras – but they refused.
“There are 30 agents there,” he recalled in a telephone interview about Monday’s search. “You told our attorney… You must vacate the property immediately. Turn off all security cameras.’
By not turning off the security cameras, Eric Trump said they saw the FBI raiding areas of the property they “shouldn’t have been.”
Donald Trump watched the FBI Mar-a-Lago raid live from Trump Tower in New York via the security camera feeds at his Florida home
Trump attorney Christina Bobb told Real America’s Voice that “President Trump and his family probably had a better view than I did because they had the CCTV.”
Meanwhile, the search warrant used to conduct the raid is expected to be unveiled on Friday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that the Justice Department has filed a motion in federal court to issue the warrant and inventory of items from Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s private club and Florida residence.
Garland said Trump’s attorneys have their own copies of both the warrant and the receipt for the items seized in Monday’s raid — documents that are routinely made available to the target of a court-authorized search.
If Trump has the warrant and the receipt, as Garland says, it’s unclear why he doesn’t just publish them himself, which he has a right to do.
Late Thursday night, Trump said he would not oppose the request for the warrant and inventory to be released.
He wrote on his social media page Truth Social that he “encourages” it.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the un-American, unjustified and unnecessary raid and burglary at my home in Palm Beach, Fla., Mar-a-Lago, I will go a step further by I ENCOURAGE them to immediately release these documents,” he wrote.
‘Release the documents now!’ he said.
The statement came well ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline that Trump’s legal team faced if it chose to deny the DOJ’s request to unseal the warrant. A decision on the application could be made on Friday.
During Monday’s FBI raid, 10 boxes of materials were removed from Mar-a-Lago; above is a member of the Secret Service at Trump’s Florida home
Attorney General Merrick Garland said he “personally authorized” the raid.
Garland said he was taking the unusual step of speaking out about the investigation because Trump himself disclosed it.
The former president and his family have gone on the defensive, criticizing the Justice Department for their actions and blaming President Joe Biden for ordering the crackdown.
The White House said the president learned about the raid from public reports.
Garland said he “personally approved” the raid.
Monday’s raid was part of a longer investigation into documents Trump took when he left the White House. Under the Presidential Records Act, all of these documents must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration for historical preservation at the end of each Presidential Administration.
Earlier this year, Trump returned 15 boxes to the archives. But on Monday, agents searched storage rooms in Mar-a-Lago and areas of Trump’s private residence in a day-long search and removed about 10 boxes.
The contents of these boxes are still unclear. Unsealing the search warrant will provide more details, but if the files are marked top secret or classified, details will be hidden.
Multiple reports Thursday said the raid was based on documents related to nuclear weapons.
The New York Times reported investigators were concerned about material from what the government calls “Special Access Programs,” a term usually reserved for extremely sensitive operations conducted by the United States abroad, or closely custodial technologies and skills.
And classified information experts told the Washington Post the search showed concern among government officials about the types of information they believed was in Mar-a-Lago and could potentially fall into the wrong hands.
Trump claimed it was a “hoax”. In a post on his social media account on Truth Social, the former president said, “The nuclear weapons issue is a hoax.”
Agents “discovered boxes everywhere,” News Nation reported, including some papers described as top secret from two areas, including a “storage room near a pool” and his “personal office above a ballroom.”
The report did not specify which ballroom or billiard room the documents were found in, but noted that some of the papers contained Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information — the highest level of classification.