Former President Donald Trump has taken a new legal hit as the federal prosecutors reportedly say a witness inside Mar-a-Lago is cooperating in the classified documents probe.
The unnamed insider could help the feds crack a wall of silence around Trump concerning his handling of classified documents he took to the Florida resort home after leaving the White House.
It’s unclear whether the insider still works for Trump and how much he or she may have told investigators about Trump’s potential involvement in moving or concealing documents.
Special counsel Jack Smith is particularly interested in Trump’s actions last spring after he failed to comply with a subpoena demanding their return, actions that could amount to obstructing the probe.
The revelation, first reported by the New York Times, suggests investigators have ammunition to confront Trump aides who have kept their lips sealed about the documents and particularly possible gaps in video security footage of a Mar-a-Lago storage room where they were mostly kept.
Prosecutors typically use information provided by insiders or from other sources to confront unhelpful witnesses or to force them to divulge what they may know about potentially illegal acts.
The report comes as Trump Organization Chief Operating Officer Matthew Calamari Sr., one of the former president’s most long-serving and loyal aides, appeared Thursday under subpoena before the grand jury investigating the documents scandal.
His son, Matthew Jr., who also works for Trump, separately underwent grilling under oath.
Prosecutors recently grilled Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran about why he approved a statement that falsely asserted a “diligent search” turned up no classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
A court-approved search of the resort turned up more than 100 such documents.
The report also says that prosecutors in the Mar-a-Lago documents case have subpoenaed records of Trump’s financial dealings with the upstart Saudi-backed LIV golf tour.
It’s not known what connection that controversial deal could have with the documents although U.S. national security experts worry that some of the Trump documents could wind up in the hands of foreign allies or adversaries.
The Mar-a-Lago documents case is not related to either the civil rape case Trump is facing in a Manhattan court room or his indictment on charges tied to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
It’s considered a more straightforward legal case than Smith’s investigation into Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
