(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) Earlier this year, prior to its raid on Mar-a-Lago, the FBI interviewed Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin regarding possibly classified documents the former president allegedly removed from the White House and kept at his Florida estate, according to a report from the New York Times.
Using the usual anonymous sourcing — “people familiar” — the Times claimed that at least one of the lawyers, who were both appointed to their positions in January, 2021, attempted to “help the National Archives retrieve the material,” but that Trump refused.
“It’s not theirs, it’s mine,” President Trump is alleged to have said in response.
While Trump returned 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives earlier this year, the deep state was able to subpoena footage from Mar-a-Lago’s security cameras anyway using the testimony from a mole within Trump’s estate.
“Officials used a subpoena to obtain surveillance footage of the hallway outside a storage room at Mar-a-Lago and saw something that alarmed them,” the Times reported.
“They also received information from at least one witness who indicated that more material might remain at the residence, people familiar with the investigation said.”
Democrat lawfare attorney Andrew Weissman appeared on MSNBC to hype the story, but offered little more than a promise that the revelations “could be quite explosive” when more information is released.
NEW: NYT Reports Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin were interviewed about President Trump's documents stored at Mar-a-Lago. @AWeissmann_ talks about the revelations: "This could be quiet explosive." pic.twitter.com/YLFYRXs1d8
— Katy Tur Reports (@KatyOnMSNBC) August 16, 2022
Of course, close readers of the corporate media know that National Archivist David Ferriero, a former director of the New York Public Library, was out to get Trump on a document technicality from the moment he saw him leave the White House.
Furthermore, even though Merrick Garland has refused to speak about an “ongoing investigation,” his office and the FBI are “leaking like a sieve,” according to Federalist reporter Margot Cleveland.
The DOJ/FBI isn't leaking like a sieve, they're leaking like a spigot! (While I often do screw up sayings, this one I did on purpose.) pic.twitter.com/pi7ilKX3g2
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) August 17, 2022
Trump allies, on the other hand, have speculated that the DOJ and FBI are after Trump’s “hoard” of Russiagate documents.
