TRUMP TRIAL: According to multiple people familiar with the investigation, federal prosecutors may call Mar-a-Lago staffers and contract workers to testify against former President Donald Trump and his two co-defendants at their upcoming criminal trial in Florida.
CNN has compiled a detailed picture of how prosecutors are building their case against Trump for mishandling secret documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago.
While some witnesses who may be called to testify are from Trump’s inner circle, including his business career, political campaign, and time in the White House, other potential witnesses, according to the sources, are the types of workers whom Mar-a-Lago’s wealthy guests rarely notice.
According to the sources, other likely witnesses include:
- Trump Secret Service agents.
- Former intelligence officials.
- Others were in the room with Trump when he was heard on multiple audio recordings referring to a military document regarding potential preparations to destroy Iran.
However, if summoned to testify, the low-level personnel who were the eyes and ears of Mar-a-Lago might provide the public with new insights into the elite club and Trump’s approach to sensitive national security intelligence after leaving office. Some are still working at Mar-a-Lago.
Following the publication of this report, Trump commented on social media, confirming that several people saw papers and boxes at Mar-a-Lago.
“Of course they did!” says the author. They could be the boxes and other items openly and visibly brought from the White House, as is my right under the Presidential Records Act.”
The Presidential Records Act states unequivocally that White House records about government activity are public property and must be handed to the National Archives when the president and vice president leave office.
Trump Documents Trial May Put Resort Workers On Witness Stand, Sources SayTrump Documents Trial May Put Resort Workers On Witness Stand, Sources Say
The trial is scheduled to begin in May in Florida, far before the 2024 presidential election. However, Aileen Cannon, the federal judge presiding over the case, is considering postponing the trial until after the election, thus hiding details about Trump’s behavior until voters go to the polls.
Overall, prosecutors might use these witnesses to demonstrate to a jury the free-wheeling environment that Trump presided over after leaving the White House. The possible witnesses have already provided detailed information to federal investigators regarding the level of security at the Mar-a-Lago resort, including how boxes of documents were stored and if they were visible or accessible to visitors.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment for this article. Trump’s spokespeople waited to react to CNN’s request for comment.
Some witnesses told investigators that what they observed at Mar-a-Lago piqued their interest and appeared strange, out of place, or potentially suspicious.
According to three sources who spoke with CNN about what he told investigators, a woodworker from South Florida put crown molding in Trump’s bedroom in February 2022 and saw documents. While the stack of papers he saw was classified, the craftsman wasn’t sure what he had seen strewn about the site.
Trump Documents Trial May Put Resort Workers On Witness Stand, Sources SayTrump Documents Trial May Put Resort Workers On Witness Stand, Sources Say
“He thinks he saw things, doesn’t know what they were – he eventually told investigators he thought what he saw may have been a movie prop,” a source involved with the investigation said.
According to the sources, prospective witnesses include:
- A maid who cleaned Trump’s suite.
- A plumber who has worked at the property several days a week for years.
- Numerous other maintenance workers.
According to sources acquainted with the inquiry, some workers may not be called as witnesses by prosecutors trying the case and may not have even spotted boxes or documents around the property.
Nonetheless, prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith stated in their June indictment of Trump that lax security once visitors entered the Mar-a-Lago compound is an issue they expect to bring up in front of a jury.
According to the indictment, “Mar-a-Lago was an active social club that hosted events for tens of thousands of members and guests between January 2021 and August 2022,” including movie premieres, weddings, and fundraisers.
According to one source, police questioned a driver about wealthy businesspeople, including foreigners, who had visited the club as VIP guests. The chauffeur, for example, detailed transporting Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, who could be summoned as a witness.
Pratt paid Trump a visit at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left office, and the former president revealed secret information about US nuclear submarines with Pratt, according to two people. ABC News previously reported on this detail. This is not one of the incidents in which Trump has been charged with mishandling national security material.
CNN has contacted Pratt’s representative.
A bustling nightclub
Prosecutors claimed in their June indictment that Mar-a-Lago had 25 guest rooms, two ballrooms, a spa, a gift shop, offices, pool, and fitness facilities. More than 150 employees, ranging from temporary to full-time, milled about.
Witness evidence at the trial is sure to bring that scenario to life.
Prosecutors claim that after January 2021, the club was no longer a place where sensitive materials could be legitimately stored, owned, read, displayed, or discussed, making the presence of those without security clearances a risk to national security.
Trump is accused of mishandling 32 national security records, the majority of which are classified, that he maintained after leaving office, primarily in boxes at Mar-a-Lago. He is also accused of conspiring with his co-defendants – Walt Nauta, his bodyguard, and Carlos De Oliveira, the club’s valet turned property manager – to conceal part of the boxes from the federal government and destroy security footage of the boxes being transported.
Prosecutors have publicly mentioned a few potential witnesses in recent court sessions, including a receptionist at the club, the head of maintenance, and a personal aide to Trump.
The social network of Mar-a-Lago
Some of the persons named by CNN as possible witnesses are long-term Trump property employees who live in South Florida and learned about the Trump staff’ concentration on attempting to remove the security film through word-of-mouth.
Many past and present club employees are still in regular communication, and they relayed word about the FBI search of the resort in August 2022 to one another. Previously, federal agents had approached several of them for preliminary interviews. Some of them agreed to extra interviews with prosecutors and testified in front of a grand jury.
Jim Trusty, an attorney who stopped representing the former president in the documents case after Trump was indicted, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” Thursday that the Justice Department and the FBI “aggressively” intimidated a lot of “salt of the earth, good people, hard-working people down in the Mar-a-Lago scene.”
“It’s the kind of thing where, Kaitlan, you could drive by Mar-a-Lago, go to the beach and get a subpoena,” Trusty told me.
The federal investigation into the Mar-a-Lago payroll enraged the former president, who spends his winters in Florida and frequently poses for photos with club guests. When the maid who cleans Trump’s bedroom suite was requested to talk with investigators, for example, Trump’s answer was “ballistic,” according to a CNN source.
According to two people who talked to CNN, one important witness, Yuscil Taveras, only recently left his position as the club’s director of IT as the start of South Florida’s winter season approached. Taveras is designated in the indictment as “Trump Employee 4,” and it was publicly stated that prosecutors offered him a favorable deal in exchange for his cooperation.
However, Trump had no idea Taveras had remained to work at the club after his divorce from a Trump-provided lawyer this summer, and the former president was upset to learn of his ongoing employment, according to the sources.
Taveras’ attorney declined to comment.
SOURCE – (CNN)
