# 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:** 402
**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:** [April 12, 2024, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8046 "2024-04-12T13:50:54Z")
i not sure how he can stay on team trump and be an important witness for team u. s… ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8047 "2024-04-12T13:53:02Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > not sure how he can stay on team trump and be an important witness See, this lack of corruption is why you’ll never be hired for Team Trump. They’re all quite good at double-think and hypocrisy. ETA: there’s potential for comedy gold when he’s in court cross-examining himself. Is SNL listening? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8048 "2024-04-12T14:00:59Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > ETA: there’s potential for comedy gold when he’s in court cross-examining himself. Is SNL listening? Get Andy Serkis. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8049 "2024-04-12T14:02:46Z")
---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8050 "2024-04-12T14:27:13Z")
Easy for you to say. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8051 "2024-04-12T14:30:47Z")
Yeah, I had a link to a YouTube video of the scene from LOTR that was being referenced. For some reason it won’t show. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8052 "2024-04-12T17:17:19Z")
The FBI interview from May 2022 with Walt Nauta has been released. About 100 pages long. Here’s a [link to an article](https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/04/12/walt-nauta-claimed-trump-hoarded-hairspray-cans-in-his-storage-rooms/) that describes it a bit. Here’s a [link to the interview.](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24543166-nauta-transcript) Per the article: Trump loved to hoard hairspray. [![](https://www.emptywheel.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-12-at-10.41.32.png) ](https://www.emptywheel.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-12-at-10.41.32.png) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8053 "2024-04-12T17:35:01Z")
And in other news, Trump’s codefendants are trying the Sgt. Shultz defense. > **[Trump’s Co-Defendants in Documents Case Seek to Dismiss Charges](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/us/politics/trump-nauta-oliveira-dismiss-charges.html)** > > Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who still work for the former president, will be in federal court in Florida on Friday asking a judge to throw out charges that they helped obstruct the investigation. > In written filings, they have already told Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is handling the case, that even though their clients may have been following orders from Mr. Trump, they could not have joined him in a plot to hide classified materials they knew nothing about or in obstructing an investigation they never knew existed. > according to his lawyer, John Irving, Mr. De Oliveira also had no idea that there was classified material in the boxes or had any knowledge that Mr. Corcoran was about to search them as part of a federal investigation. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8054 "2024-04-12T17:41:50Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The first link is paywalled. > > The second talks about the risks, but doesn’t make it clear that anyone was killed through Trump leaks. Here’s another gift link that more directly addresses your comment, but doesn’t specifically tie it to the Trump leaks. Although it should be noted that even if it were possible to do so, I’m sure that documentation of any such connection would itself be classified. > **[Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants...](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.html?unlocked_article_code=1.j00.S_ty.6Nmsm0BYq8s2&smid=url-share)** > > Counterintelligence officials said in a top secret cable to all stations and bases around the world that too many of the people it recruits from other countries to spy for the U.S. are being lost. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8055 "2024-04-12T19:54:43Z")
Here’s an interview with a professor of law at U of Texas about why things are moving so slowly and why there’s little hope of that changing. No real new information, but good analysis. Audio here: [Mar-a-Lago Documents Case: Can Jack Smith get Aileen Cannon to recuse herself? (slate.com)](https://slate.com/podcasts/what-next/2024/04/mar-a-lago-documents-case-can-jack-smith-get-aileen-cannon-to-recuse-herself) And condensed write-up here: > **[The Chaos Unfolding in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Documents Case](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/04/aileen-cannon-jack-smith-donald-trump-mar-a-lago-documents-case-delay-trial-chaos.html)** > > “It’s like an Escher painting of insipid legal argumentation, except written in purple crayon.” Some highlights: > **Judge Cannon has been presiding over this case for 10 months now. Is that a long time to be in this kind of beginning stage?** > > Stuff that she’s doing is generating very unusual reasons for delay. For example, these ancillary procedural issues that should be easily resolvable are taking a really long time. There’s still a lot of pending motions in front of Judge Cannon that she should have resolved already. > [Trump’s PRA argument is] like an Escher painting of insipid legal argumentation, except written in purple crayon. > **What do** **you think is motivating Judge Cannon here? I can’t figure out what the goal is.** > > There’s this debate online and in the media generally about whether this is bias or incompetence. And for whatever reason, people treat those as mutually exclusive categories. I actually think it’s both. And you can’t really understand what’s happening unless you attribute her pattern of behavior in part to each of those things. > > **Why do you think it’s both?** > > She consistently is making gigantic legal mistakes, but she’s always making them in the same direction. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8056 "2024-04-12T20:28:49Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > With that said, it was the Gov’t burden to prove these witness names should be redacted So, “What, have you been living under a rock for the last 4 years?” wasn’t sufficient reasoning? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8057 "2024-04-12T20:46:28Z")
Needs more cites. No, really, the underlying point is precisely that, but the motion papers need to flesh it out with evidence and legal case citations. Court practice is a highly formalized dance. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8058 "2024-04-13T04:45:00Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > ETA: there’s potential for comedy gold when he’s in court cross-examining himself. Is SNL listening? Woody Allen already did it in _Bananas_. The list of charges was surprisingly familiar. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2024, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8059 "2024-04-13T04:50:41Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > ETA: there’s potential for comedy gold when he’s in court cross-examining himself. Is SNL listening? Judge looks over at the prosecutor, already prepared to sustain the objection he’s expecting to hear. The prosecutor makes eye contact with the judge and says, knowingly, “No no, let him go on. This is all happening under oath, right?”. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8060 "2024-04-13T05:42:01Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > She consistently is making gigantic legal mistakes, but she’s always making them in the same direction. This is why it’s not incompetence. She’s faking incompetence to cover for her corruption. If it were truly a matter of incompetence, at least one “mistake” should have gone the other way. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8061 "2024-04-13T06:00:33Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > If it were truly a matter of incompetence, at least one “mistake” should have gone the other way. Misses the point. It’s at least some of both. There’s indication she’s trying to avoid a career ending (or at least career-defining, since she’s got a lifetime appointment) mistake. She’s probably biased but somebody who is both biased and competent would be able to avoid the sorts of mistakes that legal experts would question to such a degree. That’s rather the point of the Federalist Society in the first place. So, the evidence points towards both biased AND incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8062 "2024-04-13T08:28:26Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > She’s probably biased but somebody who is both biased and competent would be able to avoid the sorts of mistakes that legal experts would question to such a degree. It puts me in mind of someone sneaking around in the shadows but clumsily knocking things over repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8063 "2024-04-13T13:03:15Z")
Great analogy. Or Inspector Clouseau interrogating suspects. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8064 "2024-04-13T13:23:05Z")
The impression that I get is that she’s genuinely clueless, and since she doesn’t know what to do, she’s asking the lawyers. And since she’s biased, she’s only asking the defense lawyers. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2024, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/8065 "2024-04-13T16:26:37Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > There’s indication she’s trying to avoid a career ending ( **or at least career-defining** , since she’s got a lifetime appointment) mistake. (Emphasis mine.) Oh, honey, that ship already sailed. I think her credibility on the bench is already shot. She’s extremely biased. And she’s extremely incompetent and out of her depth. It makes me sad that this is what the Right Wing wants from its jurists. Stupid malleable tools. [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=401) [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=403)