Jack Smith subpoenas 'dozens' of Mar-a-Lago staff about classified documents
Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith has issued subpoenas to at least two dozen people working at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club in South Florida — including waitstaff, reported CNN on Thursday.
"On Thursday, Trump’s communications aide Margo Martin, who worked in the White House and then moved with Trump to Florida, appeared before the grand jury in Washington, DC. One of special counsel Jack Smith’s senior-most prosecutors was involved in the interview," reported Katelyn Polantz, Paula Reid, Kristen Holmes, and Casey Gannon. "Martin, who is among a small group of former White House advisers who have remained employed by Trump after he left office, declined to answer any questions when approached by a CNN reporter."
The subpoenas are in connection with the investigation into the trove of highly classified intelligence documents discovered at the property last year, prompting an FBI search of the premises and a national security probe.
"Smith has sought testimony from a range of people close to Trump – from his own attorneys who represent him in the matter to staffers who work on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, including a housekeeper and restaurant servers, sources said," the report continued. "The staffers are of interest to investigators because of what they may have seen or heard while on their daily duties around the estate, including whether they saw boxes or documents in Trump’s office suite or elsewhere."
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Trump has repeatedly claimed, with no legal basis, that he has a right to those documents, and told the National Archives he had turned over all documents prior to the FBI search.
Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, is also investigating the plots to overturn the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Additionally, Trump is facing state-level criminal investigations, including a financial probe in Manhattan that experts believe is heading toward an imminent indictment.