# FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [August 8, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329 "2022-08-08T23:18:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 248
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4941 "2023-06-06T17:11:45Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > OK, what’s up with ‘moist’? I keep hearing/reading people commenting that they hate the word. Due to the ‘moistfully good’ commercials when I was little, I associate ‘moist’ with Dunca Hines cake mix. Yeah, I’ve heard that women especially dislike the term, but I never understood why. Driving from NE Indiana to my home W of Chicago on Sunday, I passed a pickup with the license “MOIST.” I thought it an odd choice, since I had heard of the dislike for the word. > **[The Science Behind Why People Hate the Word ‘Moist’](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64984/science-behind-why-people-hate-word-moist)** > > We need to warn you: This article contains lots and lots of mentions of the word ‘moist.’ Moist. Moist! ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4942 "2023-06-06T17:14:39Z")
It all depends on what it is that’s moist. Some moist things are very nice. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4943 "2023-06-06T17:33:32Z")
Moderating: > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > OK, what’s up with ‘moist’? > [@Dinsdale](#): > > Yeah, I’ve heard that women especially dislike the term, but I never understood why. > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > It all depends on what it is that’s moist. An interesting discussion. Not for this thread. Please drop the hijack now. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4944 "2023-06-06T17:39:12Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > … how can a room of any sort be damaged by draining the pool? One would think that the drained water would be diverted away from any buildings. It becomes more plausible when you recall that Trump hires “only the best”. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4945 "2023-06-06T18:06:31Z")
“How do you start a flood?” [Reddit - Dive into anything](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1i2jdp/how_do_you_start_a_flood/) ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4946 "2023-06-06T18:21:18Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Others are getting in on the action too. On a predominantly RWNJ message board that I occasionally look in on, one of the few moderates is betting it will be Thursday. I think there is as likely a chance it will be Thursday as Friday and I nearly picked Thursday, too. But there was no down side for me to pick Friday. I’ll “win” either way. Silly fake betting aside, I’ll be pleased _whenever_ this long-awaited event occurs. I saw footage aired this morning of media folks badgering Jack Smith as he walked back to his office yesterday from the DOJ – a first, so far as I can tell. He looked none too happy about it and would not utter a word in response to their questions. Unsurprisingly. Looked a little scrawny, too. I’ll bet he’s forgetting to eat. I can’t begin to imagine the amount of pressure on him at this moment in time. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4947 "2023-06-06T21:11:23Z")
@Aspenglow Perhaps this was started by myself. But the relevancy is the question of why a server/s would be stored in an environment such as a pool room or anywhere that it might be moist. Anyone. Anyone that I know that that is perhaps a bad idea. So, I, and others just think it’s a lie. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4948 "2023-06-06T21:20:00Z")
The problem wasn’t the use of the word, ‘moist,’ as you used it to describe the environment in which the relevant servers were being discussed, which was perfectly appropriate. It was the side discussion that ensued regarding the agreeable or disagreeable nature of the word itself. That was the hijack. Hope this clarifies. ---
**Author:** ![SingleMalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/singlemalt/32/3961_2.png) [@SingleMalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingleMalt)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4949 "2023-06-06T22:36:48Z")
Maybe I’m missing something here? Why would a flood in a server room damage already-stored data? The hard drives should still be recoverable, no? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4950 "2023-06-06T22:45:20Z")
That’s what I’m thinking too. I don’t think a little water would necessarily render the data unrecoverable. Perhaps Donnie thought that since data consists of 0s and 1s, the 0s being full of air would float away leaving the drives with nothing but 1s. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4951 "2023-06-06T22:45:43Z")
> [@SingleMalt](#): > > Maybe I’m missing something here? Why would a flood in a server room damage already-stored data? **The hard drives should still be recoverable, no?** - Not if they were accidentally hit with the hammers that were being used to build a dam to keep out the pool water. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4952 "2023-06-06T22:48:05Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Not if they were accidentally hit with the hammers that were being used to build a dam to keep out the pool water. And, unfortunately, they keep excess rainwater stored in the cloud, so that data is ruined also. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4953 "2023-06-06T22:53:56Z")
I would assume that the Mar-a-Lago server room was still using magnetic disks. Depending on how deeply the water was able to penetrate and how long they were exposed to water, without being opened up and dried out, they’d be likely to corrode (e.g. rust). That would destroy the information. I don’t deal with hardware but my sense would be that any damage would be a bit random. You’re liable to get fragments of information from some drives and not others. You might be missing half of any full ring around the disk, for example, which might mean that you’ve got cyclical blocks of data in your files that are unreadable. Determining which blocks of data belong to the same file will be difficult. I’d assume that the Federal government has a variety of recovery tools and that they’ll be able extract anything that is present, but putting it back together will be a slow process. Their best hope would be that there are clear portions of text that are blatantly criminal. Of course, it might be apparent that the disks had been wiped before being flooded. In that case, it would be pretty strong evidence that the water damage was not accidental. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4954 "2023-06-06T22:55:53Z")
I like to think Jack didn’t need anything off them anyway, and trump just made a huge mess in his beautiful resort for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4955 "2023-06-06T22:58:35Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I would assume that the Mar-a-Lago server room was still using magnetic disks. > > Depending on how deeply the water was able to penetrate and how long they were exposed to water, without being opened up and dried out, they’d be likely to corrode (e.g. rust). That would destroy the information. Thing is, hard drive platters are usually in an air-tight enclosure, in order to keep out any dust or anything. The bigger ones even have a different gas in them so they can spin faster. I’d expect it would take a significant amount of time the actual data on the hard drive to be damaged, even if the drive itself didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4956 "2023-06-06T23:01:48Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Reading between the lines, the federal Florida grand jury is being convened to hear evidence about potential crimes committed solely in the State of Florida, which leads me to speculate the proceedings are for possible co-conspirators such as Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta. I really hope that Walt has a come to Jesus moment, and flips on Trump. Because he should know that loyalty to Trump will just get him thrown under the Trump bus later. It would be pretty sweet if ol’ Walt confesses that he was ordered by Trump to hide classified documents, and/or flood the server room. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4957 "2023-06-06T23:11:27Z")
It’s entirely possible. While there may be several other good reasons for a grand jury to be hearing testimony in the Trump documents case in Florida at this late juncture, few explain the (not very many known) facts better than the Walt Nauta scenario. Nothing focuses the mind so well as facing a long prison term of your own – in this case, Nauta’s. Is Trump really worth it? (Rhetorical question, as I’m sure you know!) Jack Smith could still bring his indictment(s) in DC while this bit of the case is being developed and file a superseding indictment later on if the evidence becomes important to the case. As you point out, it would be a nice cherry on top of an already massive sundae of obstruction evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4958 "2023-06-06T23:21:14Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I really hope that Walt has a come to Jesus moment, and flips on Trump. Because he should know that loyalty to Trump will just get him thrown under the Trump bus later. « Walt? Never met him. He did a major land deal for that theme park of his. Talk to De Sanctimonious if you want info. » ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4959 "2023-06-06T23:23:04Z")
\< Prosecutor waves at Exhibit G, tape recording made by Walt Nauta \> ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2023, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/4960 "2023-06-07T00:20:34Z")
Remember trump’s accountant went to rikers for trump. Rikers. In his 70’s. For trump. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329.md?page=247) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329.md?page=249)