Tag: mar-a-lago

DOJ has more evidence of possible Trump obstruction in classified docs probe: report

The legal hits keep coming against former President Trump.

The Justice Department and FBI found new evidence of possible obstruction by the GOP firebrand tied to their investigation into classified documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago last year, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

After Trump’s advisors received a subpoena in May demanding the records back, the 76-year-old ex-commander-in-chief leafed through some of the boxes of top-secret government documents in an apparent effort to keep certain things in his possession, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the probe.


The Justice Department and FBI found new evidence of possible obstruction tied to their investigation into documents recovered at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago last year, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Getty Images

The FBI then seized 11 sets of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during a raid in August.

Some of the government records from the raid were marked as highly classified.

Investigators also have evidence that indicates Trump told others to mislead government officials in early 2022 – before the May subpoena – when the National Archives and Records Administration was working to get back documents from Trump’s time in the White House, the Washington Post reported.


The FBI then seized 11 sets of classified documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate during a raid in August.
The FBI then seized 11 sets of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during a raid in August.
Getty Images

Documents seized during the Aug. 8 search by the FBI of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida are spotted.
AP

The latest revelation comes amid a myriad of criminal probes the former president is facing, including the indictment issued last week in Manhattan over hush money paid to pornstar Stormy Daniels.

The classified documents probe is one of two criminal inquiries into the 2024 presidential contender spearheaded by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The special counsel is also looking into whether Trump tried to block Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.


Donald Trump continues his daily golf outing near his Mar-A-Lago, Palm Bach, Florida home, despite the former president having been indicted.
Mega for NY Post

The FBI declined to comment on the report, but Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the probes in a statement to the Washington Post.

“The witch-hunts against President Trump have no basis in facts or law,” he said.

“The deranged special counsel and the DoJ have now resorted to prosecutorial misconduct by illegally leaking information to corrupt the legal process and weaponize the justice system in order to manipulate public opinion and conduct election interference, because they are clearly losing all across the board.”

The federal probes are only part of Trump’s legal headaches.

The former president is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan court this Tuesday over hush-money payments made on his behalf to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump also faces a Georgia inquiry into whether or not he tried to overturn the 2020 election which he lost to President Biden, 80. 

With Post wires

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Trump heads to college wrestling tournament after claiming arrest is near

Former president Donald Trump was spotted Saturday at a Florida airport — hours after he roiled the nation by announcing his imminent arrest.

Trump, who had spent the day holed up at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, boarded a Boeing 757 branded with his name on it as he headed to Tulsa, Okla. to attend the NCAA Division I wrestling championship there, the Daily Mail reported.

It was the first sighting of the former commander in chief since he goaded his supporters to “PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!” in a series of all-caps messages that claimed he will be placed under arrest on Tuesday by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

Trump is facing possible indictment over a $130,000 hush money payment he allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

He insisted Saturday that he had committed no crime.


Trump is facing possible indictment over a $130,000 hush money payment he allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
AP

If Trump is indicted, he will become the first president in US history ever to face criminal charges after leaving office.

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Two people who searched Trump properties for classified documents testify before grand jury

Two people hired to search for classified material last year at properties belonging to former President Donald Trump have testified before a federal grand jury, according to a report.

Both individuals provided the panel investigating the 76-year-old former president’s mishandling of classified documents with roughly three hours of testimony, according to CNN.

The duo were hired to search Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, country club, Trump Tower in New York, an office in Florida, and a storage unit in the Sunshine State, according to the report. 

In November of last year, lawyers hired by Trump found at least two documents marked as classified while searching a storage facility in West Palm Beach, Florida and handed the material over to the FBI, according to multiple reports.

The search party was organized by Trump to ensure that he had fully complied with a May 2022 grand jury subpoena ordering the handover of all materials with classified markings at the former president’s properties.

Those files were reportedly discovered by the two people who recently testified before the federal grand jury. 


Lawyers for Trump found two documents marked as classified last year in November.
Getty Images

The search came after an August 2022 FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate where hundreds of documents with classified markings were seized. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Justice Department in November,  is reportedly considering charges related to violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice in connection with the former president’s mishandling of classified documents.

Trump insists that he did nothing wrong and publicly said that he declassified all the material found at his properties post-presidency. 

According to CNN, Smith’s team has been pushing to access files on the laptop of at least one staff member close to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The special counsel is reportedly seeking to determine if there is an electronic paper trail related to the classified documents.

Since Trump’s classified document scandal emerged late last year, President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence have also turned over highly sensitive material to the National Archives that they say was inadvertently removed from the White House and stored at their residences or offices. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur earlier this month to investigate Biden’s mishandling of sensitive documents, some reportedly related to Iran, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. 

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Trump 2024 presidential announcement gets panned on Twitter

Former President Donald Trump’s long-anticipated launch of his 2024 White House campaign set off strong reactions Tuesday, with conservatives and liberals alike expressing dismay.

“Donald Trump failed America,” read a message posted from President Biden’s personal account during the 76-year-old Trump’s Mar-a-Lago address.

The 79-year-old president’s tweet included a video blasting his predecessor’s record on the economy, healthcare, and women’s rights — and also accusing Trump of “coddling extremists” and “inciting a violent mob” on Jan. 6, 2021. 

The president himself was attending a mangrove tree-planting ceremony as part of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia when a reporter asked if he had any reaction to Trump throwing his hat in the ring.

“Not really,” Biden responded before turning back to the mangroves.

The conservative publication National Review, which opposed Trump during the 2016 GOP primary, quickly posted an editorial headlined simply “No” and leading with an eye-catching quote purportedly by one of the most famous French Enlightenment philosophers.

“To paraphrase Voltaire after he attended an orgy, once was an experiment, twice would be perverse,” began the piece, which went on to describe the former president as “bruised” by recent election defeats, as well as “monumentally selfish [and] morally and electorally compromised.”

“Trump’s announcement tonight is just the kickoff of what will be a messy Republican primary with candidates competing to be the most extreme MAGA Republican in the race. The DNC will be ready for them all,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said on Twitter following Trump’s announcement.

Donald Trump read a message posted from President Biden’s personal account during his address on Nov. 15, 2022.
AP

David Axelrod, the director of the University of Chicago School of Institute of Politics and former President Barack Obama’s campaign manager and top adviser, called the speech “low energy” aside from Trump’s shots at his successor. 

“Like he’s going through the motions. The only enthusiasm he’s shown is for a nasty asides about Biden’s acuity,” Axelrod said. 

The Democratic strategist also observed what he believed was a jab at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked since last week’s midterms — though he did not mention his would-be rival by name Tuesday.  

“‘Not a task for a conventional politician. This is a task for a movement.’ Talking about YOU, [DeSantis]!” Axelrod said. 

President Joe Biden makes a statement after a meeting of G7 and NATO leaders in Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 16, 2022.
AP

Axelrod’s “low energy” comment was echoed by Jeb Bush Jr., the son of the former Florida governor and Trump’s vanquished 2016 rival.

“WOW! What a low energy speech by the Donald. Time for new leaders!” Jeb Jr. tweeted, adding the hashtags “WEAK” and “SleepyDonnie.”

“Even as a detractor I had to admit that one thing Trump had going for him was he spoke but you never really saw a 70-something year old man,” judged RealClearPolitics election analyst Sean Trende. “Tonight he really looked like a 70-something year old man.”

However, the reviews were not universally negative.

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), a Trump ally, said the former president will be “hard to beat” if he runs on the remarks he delivered Tuesday night.

David Axelrod called the speech “low energy” regarding from Trump’s shots at Biden. 
Getty Images

“If President Trump continues this tone and delivers this message on a consistent basis, he will be hard to beat. His speech tonight, contrasting his policies and results against the Biden Administration, charts a winning path for him in the primaries and general election,” Graham said on Twitter.

“As we listen to President Trump remind us of what is possible regarding our borders, economy, and national security, it is my hope that he will continue to focus on the solutions that he offered tonight to restore a broken America,” he added.

Trump spoke for more than an hour at his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Palm Beach, Fla. He was joined by his wife Melania, son-in-law and former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, and sons Eric and Barron. 



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classified docs at Mar-a-Lago ‘no cause for alarm’

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team claimed Wednesday the FBI should have expected to find “sensitive” documents during the raid on his Florida estate.

The acknowledgement was made in a new legal filing that also argued the seized materials from Mar-a-Lago were no “cause for alarm” and said the National Archives and Records Administration should have “simply followed up … in a good faith effort to secure” the more than 100 classified documents found in the raid.

The document filed in the Southern District of Florida ahead of a Thursday hearing on Trump’s appeal for special master to review documents seized from his Florida home also predicted federal prosecutors would “impugn, leak and publicize” details of the investigation against him if left unsupervised.

The feds on Tuesday had rejected Trump’s request to delegate the investigation to an authorized third party in the interests of national security, adding “that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation” and documents were “likely concealed and removed” from Mar-a-Lago ahead of the raid.

Documents obtained from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home by the FBI are spread across the floor.
Department of Justice/AP

The DOJ filing also noted that some of the seized documents were marked top secret, or “TS/SCI,” and said FBI and federal prosecutors “required additional clearances” before they were allowed to review them.

Trump’s team on Wednesday blamed the discovery of the classified materials on the Biden administration’s failure to allow the former president to “assert executive privilege” and said the former president’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated during the Aug. 8 raid.

His lawyers also said the search warrant used to conduct the raid wrongfully suggested “the applicability of the Espionage Act.”

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was raided on August 8.
Steve Helber/AP

The DOJ has said Trump’s team misled them into believing all of his presidential documents were accounted for in June after a “diligent search.”

Prosecutors had already identified and reviewed materials that “potentially contain attorney-client privileged information,” in response to Trump’s request to have a special master weigh in on issues of privilege, the DOJ said Tuesday.

Trump lawyers Wednesday contended that the former president “continues to have rights related to the assertion of executive privilege.”

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Ukrainian woman Inna Yashchyshyn posing as Rothschild family member infiltrated Mar-a-Lago

A Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking family has been outed as a fraud after she allegedly infiltrated former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to reports.

Inna Yashchyshyn, 33, lied to ritzy resort members that she was the heiress to the reputed family’s mass fortune, Anna de Rothschild, according to a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

She appeared at numerous Mar-a-Lago functions mingling with the likes of Trump, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and others while she held the position as president of United Hearts of Mercy, founded by Florida-based Russian oligarch and former business partner Valery Tarasenko in Canada in 2015, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

After hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the foundation, processor Stripe Inc., suspected fraud and halted the funds for the campaign which was supposed to help families devastated by the COVI-19 pandemic.

Yashchyshyn (left) is under investigation by US and Canadian officials.
OCCRP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Yashchyshyn, 33, is now the subject of several federal investigations after it was revealed she is not in fact a member of the Rothschild family. She’s additionally under investigation by Canadian authorities for alleged financial crimes.

In actuality, Yashchyshyn is the Russian-speaking daughter of an Illinois truck driver. It’s unclear when she came to the US.

She allegedly made several trips to the ex-president’s Florida estate with her fake identity to make connections with some of the nation’s biggest leaders, according to the paper.

Federal records obtained by the Post-Gazette and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project showed Yashchyshyn had two fake passports from the US and Canada with the name “Anna de Rothschild.” A Florida driver’s license in her name listed a $13 million Miami Beach Mansion where she never lived. 

Yashchyshyn formerly worked in a suburban Miami business connecting pregnant Russian women to Americans looking to adopt a child, the Post-Gazette reported.

However, her tale of lies unfolded amid a legal dispute she had with her former associate, Tarasenko.

Yashchyshyn and her group dine after a golf fundraiser. She went under the fake name Anna de Rothschild.
OCCRP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It is unknown when Yashchyshyn came to the US and started posing as a member of one of the world’s wealthiest families.
AP

According to Tarasenko, a 44-year-old businessman raised in Moscow, she made multiple trips to Mar-a-Lago in an effort to make contacts and create new streams of business.

Photos from 2021 show the brunette hanging out with Trump, Graham and others, according to the reports.

“It wasn’t just dropping the family name. She talked about vineyards and family estates and growing up in Monaco,” John LeFevre, a former investment banker and author, told OCCRP.

She used “her fake identity as Anna de Rothschild to gain access to and build relationships with U.S. politician[s], including but not limited to Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, and [former Missouri Gov.] Eric Greitens,” Tarasenko said, according to an affidavit obtained by the Post-Gazette.

She said under oath that she has never used another name and has not broken any laws. She told the Post-Gazette that she had never heard of Anna de Rothschild.

“It was the near-perfect ruse and she played the part,” LeFevre told the paper, recalling the woman’s appearances at the club.

Yashchyshyn claims Tarasenko used her for his own gains and was abusive towards her. She claimed any false identifications using the Rothschild name had been fabricated by Tarasenko.

“Over time, Tarasenko became more controlling and aggressive over me,” she said in an affidavit, obtained by the Post-Gazette.

It’s unclear when Yashchyshyn came to the US and began using the name Anna de Rothschild, OCCRP reported.

The Post-Gazette reports they have seen copies of her fake US and Canadian passports in the name of Anna de Rothschild with Yashchyshyn’s photograph, however, has denied she created them.

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