Over the last several weeks, an absolutely comical amount of evidence has emerged to make Donald Trump look, to use an official legal term, guilty as f–k when it it comes to his handling of classified government documents, and like he has a very good chance of being charged with obstruction of justice by special counsel Jack Smith. Said evidence has included the reported findings that Trump attorney Evan Corcoran was suspiciously “steered away” from searching for classified documents in the ex-president’s office and other areas of Mar-a-Lago; a Mar-a-Lago staffer who helped move boxes at the resort allegedly asked, around the time the Trump Organization was subpoenaed for footage from the club, “how the security cameras worked and how long images remained stored in the system”; and an audio recording of Trump exists in which he says he decided to hang on to classified material concerning a potential attack on Iran.
But the revelation that will likely go down in history as both the most damning and most hilarious—unless tomorrow brings word that Trump, like, crashed a Mar-a-Lago wedding in December, showed guests documents pertaining to North Korea’s nukes, and then added, “But don’t tell anyone I have these, Jack Smith is on my tail”—is the one about Mar-a-Lago’s computer server room (yes, the one with the surveillance video logs) being flooded at a crucial time during the government’s investigation.
Per CNN:
An employee at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence drained the resort’s swimming pool last October and ended up flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. While it’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it happened by mistake, the incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious. At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.
The incident, which has not been previously reported, came roughly two months after the FBI retrieved hundreds of classified documents from the Florida residence and as prosecutors obtained surveillance footage to track how White House records were moved around the resort…. Prosecutors have heard testimony that the IT equipment in the room was not damaged in the flood, according to one source. Yet the flooded room as well as conversations and actions by Trump’s employees while the criminal investigation bore down on the club has caught the attention of prosecutors.
Multiple sources told CNN that “the flooded room” may “factor into a possible obstruction conspiracy case,” which makes a lot of sense, unless you believe that a room containing extremely significant information just totally coincidentally flooded at a crucial moment in the government’s investigation. Oh, and by the way: According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to CNN, the person who drained the pool and flooded the room was the same person who helped Trump valet Walt Nauta “move boxes of classified documents ahead of federal agents searching the property last summer.” (A spokesman for the ex-president and a lawyer representing the Mar-a-Lago worker did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.)
On Monday, lawyers for Trump met with the Justice Department to argue that the former guy should not be indicted. It’s not clear how that went, but presumably we’ll find out soon!
