Trump Allies Want Him to Release Search Footage

Eric Trump says family will release Mar-a-Lago footage 'at the right time'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 18, 2022 10:05 AM CDT
Trump Allies Want Him to Release Search Footage
An aerial view of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen on Aug. 10 in Palm Beach, Fla.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

The FBI's search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate has been a fundraising bonanza for the former president—and some Trump allies have urged the former president to release surveillance footage of the search, believing using the footage in campaign-style ads could "bolster Trump's claims of political persecution," CNN reports. Others, however, have warned that showing the sheer volume of possibly classified material removed from Trump's residence, more than a dozen boxes, could backfire. Eric Trump told Fox's Sean Hannity on Monday that the family will release the footage "at the right time."

Meanwhile, Trump is struggling to hire experienced lawyers who can deal with a "sprawling, multipronged" federal investigation, the Washington Post reported this week. A Trump spokesperson's response to that was that the former president's legal team, including ex-federal prosecutors Evan Corcoran and James Trusty, are among "the strongest attorneys in the country." It's not clear what legal advice he has received on releasing footage of the FBI search. "If someone can persuade him this is somehow good for him and bad for his enemies, he'll do it," former White House attorney Ty Cobb tells CNN. "He doesn't have the lawyers to help him sort through these things strategically and is really thinking through them on his own," adds Cobb, who left the White House in 2018. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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