# 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:** 79
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1561 "2022-08-24T17:37:25Z")
I don’t know much Spanish, but I would ALWAYS trust a native speaker more than Google translate, in every language. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1562 "2022-08-24T17:50:33Z")
Well she may, but correct Spanish it is not. _Del mar al lago_, for instance, would be OK. _Mar-a-Lago_ is not grammatically correct Spanish, the strange capitalization even less, an the hyphens are not Spanish at all in [this use](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guion_(signo_ortogr%C3%A1fico)) (link in Spanish, explaining the uses of hyphens). > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > If you type it into Google Translate as Spanish, it translates to ‘Sea-to-Lake’. Because Google Translate assumes that is what is meant, Google is not so bad at dealing with errors and imprecisions (at least it is not worse than dealing with correct sentences). It still is not correct. It is a word for word translation of a grammatically incorrect sentence. If you give Google Translate the correct input, for instance _del mar al lago_ (now that is Spanish!), it will also translate _from the sea to the lake_. BTW, _from the sea to the lake_ is correct, _Sea-to-Lake_ is not really a complete English sentence either, IMO. It reads like Twitterish. Oh, wait… ---
**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:** [August 24, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1563 "2022-08-24T17:54:59Z")
If CFSG ever sold any of these documents, that would be neck-stretch territory, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1564 "2022-08-24T18:01:17Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > BTW, _from the sea to the lake_ is correct, _Sea-to-Lake_ is not really a complete English sentence either, IMO. English generally doesn’t use grammatical sentences or even clauses for place names, so maybe our expectations are different than native Spanish speakers’. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1565 "2022-08-24T18:06:51Z")
Yeah, it’s a place (house) name. Not any kind of sentence. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1566 "2022-08-24T18:14:04Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > when ms post built the home, the property extended from lake to ocean. she gave it the name mar a lago. This. Trump did not name the house. > **[Mar-a-Lago](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar-a-Lago)** > > Mar-a-Lago (/ˌmɑːrəˈlɑːɡoʊ/; Spanish for 'Sea-to-Lake') is a resort and National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, owned since 1985 by Donald Trump. > Mar-a-Lago was built for businesswoman and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post between 1924 and 1927, during the 1920s Florida land boom. At the time of her death in 1973, Post bequeathed the property to the National Park Service, hoping it could be used for state visits or as a Winter White House, but because the costs of maintaining th... ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1567 "2022-08-24T18:22:54Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > English generally doesn’t use grammatical sentences or even clauses for place names Sure you don’t? But the individual words are Spanish, or supposed to be, only all three together are not. And you say _The Empire State Building_, right, you don’t leave the _The_ out or something. Names are usually grammatically correct in English. Never mind, enough of this diversion before it becomes a hijack and **Aspenglow** remids us to stay focused. I rest my case. And I am right, of course. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1568 "2022-08-24T19:06:18Z")
re: How Trump got the top secret documents. I think it’s been answered generally, but I wanted to try and spell out exactly how the documents would have gone from someone else to Trump. I’m going for clarity over accuracy. The President can be briefed every day about all the super important things going on in the world - the President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) - some do 1x day, others 1x week. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) summarizes a lot of very classified information and updates the President. The PDB can be oral or in document form, or both. Depends on the President. If I had to guess, I’d say this is where a lot of the Top Secret documents are, and the point it originated into Trumps possession. Further, if the President wants follow-up info, more documents would be supplied. And that’s _mostly likely_ along the lines of how he got most of the documents. We know it happens and we know it can contain super classified (Top Secret) information. You can see some declassified PDB [here](https://www.intelligence.gov/publics-daily-brief/presidents-daily-brief). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1569 "2022-08-24T19:13:32Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > The President can be briefed every day about all the super important things going on in the world - the President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) - some do 1x day, others 1x week. As was frequently reported during Trump’s administration, he often paid little attention during those briefings, and allegedly wouldn’t read detailed reports – he preferred oral briefings, and when he did look at written documents, he preferred pictures, charts, and short lists of bullet points. > **[Trump doesn't read his intelligence reports, but looks at the graphs, charts,...](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-looks-at-charts-in-intelligence-briefings-2020-5)** > > During intelligence briefings, the President Donald Trump reportedly veers off-topic, pivots to gossip, or stops listening if he's told he's wrong. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1570 "2022-08-24T19:41:53Z")
Here’s [Axios take](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/19/trump-documents-mar-a-lago-fbi) on PDBs: > - Despite his general resistance to studying intelligence, Trump reportedly sought to hold onto some of the more riveting documents he was personally interested in. > > **What they’re saying:** “Often the president would say [to intelligence briefers], ‘Well, can I keep this?’ And in my experience, the intelligence briefers most often would say, ‘Well, sir, we’d prefer to take that back.’ But sometimes they forgot,” former national security adviser John Bolton told [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-cia-briefings-challenge/). > > - Former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney corroborated that account, [telling CNN](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-avoided-briefings-flushed-notes-but-asked-for-documents-2022-8): “From time to time, the president would say ‘Can I keep this?’” > > - The New York Times [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/16/us/politics/trump-cipollone-philbin-interviews-fbi.html) that when the National Archives sought to retrieve documents that he had taken, Trump resisted, telling advisers: “It’s not theirs, it’s mine.” ---
**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:** [August 24, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1571 "2022-08-24T19:48:26Z")
My guess would be 3 turning into 2 (or maybe 1). That it that it was laziness that resulted in the documents being left at Maralago after Trump stopped being president, but once the national archives told Trump that they wanted them back , he realized that they must be valuable, so he tried to keep some of the juicy ones for himself. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2022, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1572 "2022-08-24T19:59:09Z")
That’s a good point. The President would be briefed on highly classified stuff anywhere the President was at, including Mar-a-Lago. It’s quite possible some of the documents never left Washington (with Trump) and were at Mara-a-Lago to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1573 "2022-08-24T20:30:02Z")
Let’s not forget that the LIV Golf tournament (Saudi Arabia’s version of the PGA) was held at the Trump club in Bedminster, NJ at the end of July (7/29 - 7/31). The FBI search occurred in Mar a Lago on 8/8. Trump stands to make A LOT OF MONEY from LIV. The PGA is distancing themselves from him due to his toxic nature. For his part, Trump has been trashing the PGA pretty harshly as well because we all know how well Trump takes an insult. Given Trump’s predilection for Quid Pro Quo, do you think Saudi Arabia is teaming up with him out of the goodness of their own hearts? Or are there other deals that were made and in the process of being delivered upon, necessitating the urgent need of a search barely a week after the tournament ended? ---
**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:** [August 24, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1574 "2022-08-24T21:07:42Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > …do you think Saudi Arabia is teaming up with him out of the goodness of their own hearts? I’ve heard it referred to as “sportswashing”; when a company tries to get some good PR by sponsoring a popular sporting event and hope it will make the public forget that they’re evil tyrants. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1575 "2022-08-24T21:14:33Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > Given Trump’s predilection for Quid Pro Quo, do you think Saudi Arabia is teaming up with him out of the goodness of their own hearts? It’s possible, maybe probable, that the Saudis are using Trump for his name recognition to publicize their golf tournament. But the timing of that and the search warrant can mean trouble, too. Who’s to say? The idea that Trump would negotiate deals using stolen classified information is entirely believable. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1576 "2022-08-24T21:39:05Z")
President Richard Nixon went to Mar-a-Lago a month before he resigned the Presidency, July 1974. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1577 "2022-08-24T21:40:03Z")
Trading classified information to a friendly foreign country in exchange for “votes” is very plausible too. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1578 "2022-08-25T01:37:28Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Yeah, it’s a place (house) name. Not any kind of sentence. That remains to be seen. If we’re very lucky, that house could be his life sentence. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1579 "2022-08-25T01:46:50Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > And you say _The Empire State Building_, right, you don’t leave the _The_ out or something. But we say “Stratford-upon-Avon” not “Stratford upon the Avon” or anything like that. Or “Bexhill-on-Sea” for something more obscure. In a place name, “Sea-to-Lake” would not sound objectionable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-august-8-2022-case-dismissed-july-15-2024/969329/1580 "2022-08-25T01:55:11Z")
Okay, so lets just say that Mar-a-Lago was probably _intended_ to mean sea-to-lake, but named by someone that didn’t really understand Spanish grammar. [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=78) [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=80)