Jack Smith Officially Admits To Evidence Tampering In Mar-A-Lago Raid
Special counsel Jack Smith has publicly acknowledged for the first time that prosecutors and FBI agents altered boxes of evidence obtained from Mar-a-Lago during a search for classified documents.
The admission, made in filings Monday, confirms the reporting of investigative journalist Julie Kelly who previously flagged ominous yellow and red cover sheets were inserted by the FBI into boxes of documents, an insertion that she suggested was made to play up the seizure in publicized photographs. On X, Kelly noted that the FBI had already found “loose classified cover sheets” in a blue leather-bound book in Trump’s office.
Now see if you notice the slight shift here.
FBI agents allegedly found "loose classified cover sheets" in a blue leatherbound box in Trump's office.
Then suddenly–some were attached to classified documents.
Also why are FBI placeholder sheets in classified discovery?? pic.twitter.com/tckEpqz4qG— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) June 25, 2024
“As I reported last month, the FBI brought colored classified cover sheets to the raid under the guise of using them to substitute classified documents found within Trump’s boxes. Instead, FB[I]agents attached the scary looking sheets to various files and took photos,” Kelly wrote in a follow-up post. “In DOJ’s opposition to Trump’s special master lawsuit in 2022, Jay Bratt attached infamous photo as a prop so the media would publish it and claim the papers were found with classified cover sheets.”
As I reported last month, the FBI brought colored classified cover sheets to the raid under the guise of using them to substitute classified documents found within Trump's boxes.
Instead, FBi agents attached the scary looking sheets to various files and took photos.
In DOJ's…— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) June 25, 2024
The August 2022 raid of Trump’s signature estate generated international headlines and brought sensational media attention to the Bureau, benefits that Kelly believes were secretly intended to boost Smith’s case against the former president and Republican leader. Trump himself has honed in on internal FBI documents authorizing the use of deadly force during the raid, a provision that Smith and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland have said is standard operating procedure for such events. In response, Smith on Monday requested that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon essentially put President Trump under a gag order preventing him from making “dangerous” statements about law enforcement officers, a request Cannon appears likely to deny.
Defense attorneys have also succeeded in urging Judge Cannon to order the repeal of many redactions in evidence presented by Smith which have produced equally astounding revelations. In one instance, Bratt, a prosecutor with the DOJ, allegedly met with the attorney for a Trump co-defendant and pressured him to recuse himself or face a torpedoing of a possible judicial appointment. In another, emails between the DOJ and the U.S. National Archives appeared to show that both agencies coordinated on a strategy for obtaining the documents while leaving defense attorneys out of the loop.
President Trump faces 40 federal counts and decades behind bars if found guilty in the case, just one of four criminal prosecutors he has or is facing this year. In May, the 45th president was found guilty in his hush money trial, the first criminal conviction of a former or sitting U.S. president in history. The verdict spurred an avalanche of donations to Trump’s presidential campaign and helped reinforce his message among swing voters that he is the victim of a two-tiered justice system. In response, the Biden campaign has leaned into references of Trump as a “convicted felon” and pointed to the recent conviction of first son Hunter Biden in a gun case as evidence that the justice system remains unbiased.