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Mar-a-Lago security cameras were turned off ‘for agent safety’ during FBI raid, court docs say

June 26, 2024 | | Print Article

Another previously unrevealed detail about the FBI’s storming of former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence has been unveiled, and it’s a disturbing one.

When agents executed the unprecedented August 2022 raid on the private home of a former president, they had the closed-circuit surveillance servers briefly shut down, preventing the recording of any evidence of potential fed misconduct during the initial stages of the operation.

The new revelation came out in documents filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team in response to Trump’s motion to dismiss the government’s classified documents case in South Florida based on “spoliation” of evidence, the latest bump in the road for Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

“At approximately 9:55 am, the CCTV servers were turned off to prevent recording, at the request of the FBI, out of concern for agent safety,” the document reads. “At approximately 10:20 am, recording resumed at the request of Trump attorneys.”

That leaves a 25-minute gap at a crucial time in the raid that opens up a Pandora’s Box of possibilities. It also comes after it was previously revealed that agents were authorized to use “deadly force” during the Merrick Garland-authorized home invasion. Having the cameras turned off would have conveniently missed any gunplay had things gotten violent.

“Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger,” Trump said in May after the language in the warrant was revealed in a court filing. His assertion was vehemently denied and denounced as “extremely dangerous” by Garland, the man who authorized the raid.

There is also the possibility that the surveillance blackout could have been a window of opportunity to plant evidence.

And speaking of evidence, Smith was also forced to admit that the feds doctored it. Specifically for the staged photo that was published by every major media organization as de facto proof of Trump’s guilt, but as the underhanded special counsel has repeatedly shown, trying the former President in the court of public opinion has always been fair game.

Back in 2022, constitutional law expert Professor Jonathan Turley pointed out the “misleading” nature of the image distributed to media outlets.

Leftists are apoplectic that Judge Aileen Cannon has delayed Smith’s case against Trump and some are now whining that the Justice Department is on trial, and not their target, with the actual trial placed on indefinite hold by the Trump-appointed judge.

Chris Donaldson
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