Special counsel’s team scrutinizing security camera video from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort

Security camera footage from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort has come under further scrutiny by federal investigators in special counsel Jack Smith’s office in recent months, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 

Prosecutors have asked witnesses testifying before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., about the handling of security footage subpoenaed by the Justice Department last year, the sources said — including who watches over it and who has access to it. 

CNN first reported the special counsel’s interest in the Trump Organization’s handling of the security video. 

Smith’s office declined to comment. 

In late June 2022, the Justice Department sent a subpoena to Mar-a-Lago seeking access to security camera footage, court filings revealed last year. CBS News previously reported that the video shows the boxes suspected of containing documents with classified markings being moved
before and after investigators had sought to retrieve all of the potentially sensitive documents from Trump’s Florida resort through a subpoena in early May 2022. 

Walt Nauta, a former White House culinary worker and Navy veteran, told investigators that Trump had directed him to move the boxes to a different location, an individual familiar with the investigation said last year. 

Smith’s team is probing the retention of national defense information at Mar-a-Lago and whether efforts were made to obstruct the federal probe. The special counsel is also conducting a separate investigation into attempts to unlawfully interfere with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on Jan. 6, 2021.  

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with both investigations.