Former Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush suggested a Secret Service member could be the mole in the Mar-a-Lago raid who reported Trump for stashing top-secret documents because they ‘have the responsibility to report a crime.’
Karl Rove, 71, theorized a Secret Service member ratted out the former president because they’re ‘sworn law enforcement’ and had a responsibility to report if they’ve seen the materials that Trump’s lawyers allegedly claimed weren’t there.
‘The Secret Service — and this is my own personal conjecture, I have no information besides the Secret Service is there — they have no statutory responsibility over classified material, but they are sworn federal law officers, they’re law enforcement. And they have a responsibility to report a crime,’ he told Fox News.
‘Particularly after a letter is sent from one of the president’s lawyers saying: “We don’t have any more classified material.”‘
He also claimed that the National Archive, which deals with classified material, were probably already suspicious when Trump claimed not to have classified documents, because the Archive would be able to see which documents were accounted for and which ones were missing.
![Karl Rove, 71, theorized a Secret Service member ratted out Trump because they're 'sworn law enforcement' and had a responsibility to report a crime. 'They have no statutory responsibility over classified material...[but] they have a responsibility to report a crime,' he said](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/08/27/14/61785607-11152055-image-m-11_1661606946735.jpg)
Karl Rove, 71, theorized a Secret Service member ratted out Trump because they’re ‘sworn law enforcement’ and had a responsibility to report a crime. ‘They have no statutory responsibility over classified material…[but] they have a responsibility to report a crime,’ he said
Rove was Deputy Chief of Staff for president George W. Bush (pictured together) and also a campaign aide for Trump. He became critical of Trump after the January 6 insurrection
‘If somebody sent a letter and said we don’t have classified material, and somebody in the Secret Service said “I have seen classified material still in the walls of Mar-a-Lago” and had a responsibility to report that through the chain of command…They would have somebody who had said, in essence: “You have been misled, whether it was a deliberate lie or a lie based in ignorance, somebody told you there’s no more classified material here — there is classified material here,”‘ he told Fox News.
Rove said he didn’t understand why Trump would ‘hold onto these materials when he had no legal authority to do so under the Presidential Records Act is beyond me.’
‘The Presidential Records Act is clear,’ he said. ‘A president does not have the right to leave the White House and pick and choose what documents he wants to take with him.
‘He can ask for copies, but those are the property of the American people, and since 1978, no president has left with sort of picking and choosing their own documents.’
The National Archive first reached out to Trump in May 2021 about the documents. Trump’s legal team responded that they had 12 boxes that would be removed later that year.
When the agency came to remove them, however, they left with a total of 15 boxes. Within the boxes were ‘184 unique documents bearing classification marking,’ including 25 that were marked top secret, the affidavit said.
The Department of Justice released a heavily redacted affidavit on Friday that shows the government’s justifications for the August raid on Mar-a-Lago. The affidavit lists a precise tally of the extent of the classified or secret information that was stored at the private club for more than a year.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided on August 8 and authorities found 15 boxes of documents with 184 files, 25 which were marked top secret
Rove also claimed that the National Archive – which deals with classified material – were probably already suspicious when Trump claimed not to have documents. Rove said the Archive would know how many documents were accounted for and how many were missing, despite Trump’s lawyer saying they didn’t have any
The affidavit describes the classification markings that agents saw after a prolonged letter battle with Trump’s lawyers to gain access to the 15 boxes of material.
A ‘preliminary triage’ revealed agents saw documents marked ‘HCS, FISA, ORCON, NORORN, and SI.’ Each abbreviation references a different type of information that the government requires be shielded in a certain way.
The affidavit also reveals that ‘handwritten notes’ by the president himself were included in the material.
‘President Trump has said several times all they had to do was ask. Well, my sense is they were asking for a year and a half,’ the former Trump campaign aide said on Fox.
Rove, who became critical of Trump following the January 6 insurrection, also said the affidavit didn’t clear up how many times the government had asked for the former president to return the documents.
‘So, you know, maybe we ought to ask the government, how many times did you ask for the return of the material and President Trump has said several times: “All they had do was ask.”‘
Earlier this week, Trump said he plans to file a legal motion in response to the FBI’s early August raid on Mar-a-Lago, claiming his Fourth Amendment rights were violated. The Fourth Amendment mandates that a search of a person’s home is only legal when there is reasonable cause.
In a series of posts on Truth Social Friday, the former president condemned the breach of his Florida home after law enforcement seized the boxes of classified files he allegedly took after leaving office.
‘Never in our Country’s history has there been a time where law enforcement has been so viciously and violently involved in the life and times of politics in our Nation,’ Trump wrote.
The president made the announcement on Truth Social, calling the the raid a ‘witch hunt’
‘A major motion pertaining to the Fourth Amendment will soon be filed concerning the illegal Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago, right before the ever-important midterm elections.
‘My rights, together with the rights of all Americans, have been violated at a level rarely seen before in our Country,’ he added.
It’s the latest in Trump’s battle with the FBI, as former running mate Mike Pence said he did not remove any classified material after serving as vice president.
Two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News’ Robert Costa that Trump’s motion would be filed in the coming days and will seek the appointment of a ‘special master’ to review and return the evidence collected by the FBI on August 8.
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