Top secret documents in Trump's office were stored just steps away from Mar-a-Lago's 'completely open' catering hall, says Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen that Mar-a-Lago's catering hall was steps away from where top secret documents were stored.

Trump's ex-attorney told CNN the office was "totally open" to guests attending functions.

The FBI recovered seven "top secret" documents from inside Trump's office, the DOJ said on Friday.

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Former Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen said Thursday that top secret documents were just a few steps away from Mar-a-Lago's widely accessed catering hall, HuffPost reported.

Cohen, who was referred to as Trump's "fixer" before spending time in federal prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations, described the former president's Florida office as "completely open" during an interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow.

It follows a revelation by Alina Habba, a lawyer working with the former president, who said Wednesday that Trump "frequently" had guests in the room that held boxes of classified documents.

"It's directly above the catering hall," Cohen said, referring to the office room. "It's not just guests. It's not just members; it's anybody that's there hypothetically for a wedding or a christening, a bar mitzvah — any event they have."

The disbarred attorney continued "all that separated" anybody attending one of these events from top secrets documents was "ten stairs and one little master lock key."

Trump is being investigated over his handling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago. The Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed on Friday that the FBI recovered 7 US government documents with "top secret" classifications from inside Trump's office.

The revelation was part of a broad, detailed inventory of items recovered by agents. The inventory detailed how 48 empty folders marked "classified" were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, 43 of which had been held in Trump's office.

"The investigative team has reviewed the seized materials in furtherance of its ongoing investigation, evaluating the relevance and character of each item seized, and making preliminary determinations about investigative avenues suggested or warranted by the character and nature of the seized items," said the DOJ in a letter accompanying the inventory.

"The seized materials will continue to be used to further the government's investigation, and the investigative team will continue to use and evaluate the seized materials as it takes further investigative steps," the letter continued.

Trump's post-presidency office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Ganeshadream on September 3rd, 2022 at 12:06 UTC »

The mental gymnastic going on over at r/conservative are insane. As in, literally insane. It’s a good insight on how republicans are trying to justify this criminal behaviour. They are so detached from reality that it’s very worrying. They are trying so hard to ignore reality, and it almost feels as if they don’t know that MOST Americans have realized Trump is a mad man.

tryHammerTwice on September 3rd, 2022 at 11:50 UTC »

Back in 2016 Republicans knew he was a criminal idiot in bed with Russia, never was a secret. And they still supported him.

How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business

After his financial disasters two decades ago, no U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in.

By the early 1990s he had burned through his portion of his father Fred’s fortune with a series of reckless business decisions. Two of his businesses had declared bankruptcy, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City and the Plaza Hotel in New York, and the money pit that was the Trump Shuttle went out of business in 1992. Trump companies would ultimately declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy two more times. When would-be borrowers repeatedly file for protection from their creditors, they become poison to most major lenders and, according to financial experts interviewed for this story, such was Trump’s reputation in the U.S. financial industry at that juncture.

In 2004, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts filed for bankruptcy with $1.8 billion dollars of debt.

But Trump eventually made a comeback, and according to several sources with knowledge of Trump’s business, foreign money played a large role in reviving his fortunes, in particular investment by wealthy people from Russia and the former Soviet republics.

It is a conclusion that even Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has appeared to confirm, saying in 2008—after the Trump Organization was prospering again—that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”

Trump’s former longtime architect, Alan Lapidus, echoed this view in an interview with FP this month. Lapidus said that based on what he knew from the internal workings of the organization, in the aftermath of Trump’s earlier financial troubles “he could not get anybody in the United States to lend him anything. It was all coming out of Russia. His involvement with Russia was deeper than he’s acknowledged.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/

Trump is in debt to Russia, not only to help him win 2016 but for loans in the billions.

Ex-top prosecutor: Mueller didn’t investigate Trump finances or interview Ivanka over blowback fears

Mueller should have explicitly said Trump obstructed justice, Andrew Weissmann said, admitting the probe fell short

former prosecutor on Robert Mueller's team said in a new book that the special counsel decided not to pursue President Donald Trump's finances or interviews with his children over fears that the president would shut down the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"We still do not know if there are other financial ties between the president and either the Russian government or Russian oligarchs," he wrote. "We do not know whether he paid bribes to foreign officials to secure favorable treatment for his business interests, a potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that would provide leverage against the president. We do not know if he had other Russian business deals in the works at the time he was running for president, how they might have aided or constrained his campaign, or even if they are continuing to influence his presidency."

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/22/ex-top-prosecutor-mueller-didnt-investigate-trump-finances-or-interview-ivanka-over-blowback-fears/

sonofabutch on September 3rd, 2022 at 11:43 UTC »

Once again… it doesn’t matter if he had them locked in a safe, hidden in a secret drawer, or wallpapered the guest bathroom with them.

It was illegal to have them and he had them.