Trump's Mar-a-Lago Mole Could Be the Secret Service: Karl Rove
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
NewsDonald TrumpFBI raidMar-a-lagoSecret service
Veteran Republican political strategist Karl Rove said Friday that the Secret Service could have provided federal investigators with the information that led to the FBI's raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in Florida earlier this month.
The FBI, with the approval of Attorney General Merrick Garland, carried out the raid on August 8, searching for top secret and sensitive compartmentalized information. Newsweek previously reported that the raid was based largely on information from an FBI confidential human source.
The ex-president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and accused the FBI of corruption, although the federal agency is currently led by Director Christopher Wray, a Republican whom Trump nominated to the position. The former president also said that the FBI search was part of a broader partisan "witch hunt" targeting him and his family.
In an interview on Fox News, Rove said that the Secret Service would have a responsibility to report a potential crime to federal officials. He added that an attorney for Trump had reportedly claimed in a June letter that there weren't any additional classified materials at Mar-a-Lago. Earlier this month, CNN reported on the letter from Trump's legal team saying there was no additional classified material at the property.
Above, Secret Service snipers watch as Air Force One arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base on Friday in New Castle, Delaware. Veteran Republican political strategist Karl Rove said Friday that the Secret Service could have provided federal investigators with the information that led to the FBI's raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property. Brendan Smialowski/IBTimes TV
The search warrant for the Mar-a-Lago raid, however, had a property receipt detailing the items seized as secret documents, top secret documents, a potential presidential record, various boxes, and something referred to as "Info re: President of France."
"The Secret Service—and this is my own personal conjecture, I have no information other than just simply knowing that the Secret Service is there, they have no statutory responsibility over classified material, but they are sworn federal law officers. They're law enforcement, and they have a responsibility to report a crime," Rove said Friday.
"If somebody sent a letter then and said, 'We don't have classified material' and somebody in the Secret Service said, 'I have seen classified material still within the walls of Mar-a-Lago' and had a responsibility to report that through the chain of command or maybe directly to the counterintelligence division, they would have somebody who had said in essence 'You have been misled. Whether it was a deliberate lie, or a lie based in ignorance, somebody told you there is no more classified material here, there is classified material here,'" the political strategist added.
In response to a request for comment from Newsweek , a spokesperson for the Secret Service said: "This case is exclusive to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and US Department of Justice and did not involve any investigative function of the United States Secret Service. All inquiries must be directed to the FBI or the Office of the United States Attorney."
Read more
- Karl Rove Hailed for Blasting Donald Trump on Classified Documents
- Joe Biden Mocks Donald Trump Over Claim He 'Declassified Everything'
- 'Terrifying' That Imposter, Secret Files Both at Mar-a-Lago: Ex-CIA Agent
In the wake of the raid, there has been speculation about who provided information to the FBI. The former president's niece, Mary Trump, said in an interview last week that Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, could have been the mole.
Kushner said Mary Trump's comments were "absolutely not true, categorically in every way," and said she was making "outlandish" accusations to "create headlines."
The redacted version of the affidavit in support of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, which was unsealed Friday, did not include the names of individuals who could have provided information to the FBI.
Update 8/27/22, 10:00 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from the Secret Service.
Tags
Who is online
77 visitors