August 8, 2022

Trump Says Mar-a-Lago Resort Searched by Feds

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media following a Christmas Eve video teleconference with members of the military at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2019. (AP Photo/, File)Andrew Harnik/AP

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In a potentially explosive development in the investigations into the former president, Donald Trump said that the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday.

The investigation appeared to involve classified documents that Trump allegedly took with him from the White House to his personal estate in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a New York Times report that cited two people familiar with the search. Three sources also confirmed the nature of the search to CNN.

“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump wrote in a statement. “They even broke into my safe!”

As my colleague Inae Oh reported earlier this year, Trump stands accused of improperly taking classified national security records to Mar-a-Lago in 15 boxes of documents. At the time, the Justice Department said that it would investigate possible violations of the Presidential Records Act, which governs how presidents preserve all sorts of documents, including classified information.

Trump was in New York City today, according to CNN.

This is a breaking news post and will be updated.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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