Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida was raided following a tip-off that classified government documents may have been improperly stored at the property.
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Mick Mulvaney said that someone “very close” to Trump is possibly working with the FBI.
Mulvaney, who was Trump’s chief of staff, said even he didn’t know there was a safe at Mar-a-Lago.
He estimated there were six to eight people in Trump’s inner circle with access to such information.
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has speculated that if an FBI informant in Trump’s camp did exist, they would likely be one of the six to eight people closest to the former president.
Mulvaney spoke to CNN on Thursday about the FBI’s Monday raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
He said that he thought the informant whose tip-off sparked the raid was likely someone deeply embedded in Trump’s orbit and “really close” to him.
Citing sources, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that someone had told the authorities that classified government documents might have been improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago.
“I didn’t even know there was a safe at Mar-a-Lago, and I was the chief of staff for 15 months,” Mulvaney said.
He added that the informant would be someone “very close to the president” who handled day-to-day affairs and knew “where the documents were.”
“My guess is there’s probably six or eight people who had that kind of information,” said Mulvaney.
“If you know where the safe is and you know the documents are in 10 boxes in the basement, you’re pretty close to the president,” he said.
Mulvaney added that he did not know who the people in Trump’s “inside circle” were at the moment, and was unable to provide specific names.
He also urged the FBI to release more information about the search. “The burden is on them to show that they are absolutely on the up and up,” he said. “And releasing that affidavit is something they can and should do.”
Mulvaney’s comments come as suspicions grow within Trumpworld about there being a mole close to the former president. Per Axios, Trump allies believe someone may have “flipped” on the former president and started working with the FBI.
Trump lawyer Michael Cohen also weighed in on the matter, telling Insider he wouldn’t be surprised if the informant turned out to be Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, or one of his children.
The FBI has not given an official reason for its search of Mar-a-Lago, though that may be revealed if the DOJ’s motion to unseal court records regarding the raid goes through.
Numerous media outlets — along with Trump’s son, Eric — have suggested that the search concerned material that Trump may have taken to Mar-a-Lago from the White House. The Washington Post also reported that the FBI had been searching for classified documents about nuclear weapons during the raid.