Room Without a View

      There are lots of legitimate reasons for people to have hidden rooms in their house. Some people have been known to install playrooms for their kids beneath staircases. Those with the money install panic rooms. Others, as in the case above, are hidden wine cellars.

     With Donald Trump, on the other hand, one can infer nothing but nefarious reasons for his hidden room at Mar a Lago that the FBI somehow didn't get around to searching. This is especially compelling because the room abuts or is adjacent to Trump's bedroom at Mar a Lago.

     Jack Smith's team of investigators had to turn this up on their own during their stolen documents investigation, leading many to wonder how the FBI could've possibly screwed the pooch on this one.

     Steven Michael D'Antuono, a Trump stooge who helped run the FBI’s Washington Field Office, slow-walked the whole investigation and search. He originally wanted to actually get Trump's permission to search Mar a Lago, which he certainly wouldn't have allowed had he gotten that latitude (you think the rest of us would be able to dictate to the FBI whether or not they could search our homes?).

     Nonetheless, D'Antuono tipped off Trump the search was going to happen, giving him months to prepare. As we'd later learn, Trump stooge Walt Nauta was frantically moving boxes out of a storage room at Mar a Lago in a comical attempt to keep them away from Evan Corcoran, Trump's former lawyer.

     Then Nauta engaged in some hugger mugger activity in which he was meeting with the head of maintenance at Mar a Lago (taking careful pains to not set foot on the property) to ask how long security tapes were archived. Next thing we knew a swimming pool was drained, resulting in the flooding of the security office (and only the security office) where the footage was stored.

     Now we're hearing that Trump had the lock for his secret closet changed just before the search.

     All things a totally innocent guy would do, natch.

     So, to recap: The DOJ wanted to use a search warrant to search Mar a Lago. A highly-placed mole in the DC Field Office slow-walked the search, explaining why it took the FBI well over a year and a half after the new administration came in before doing so, he tipped off Trump, boxes were moved, security footage was asked about, attempts were made to ruin it, his own lawyer kept in the dark and locks were hastily changed.

     Now people such as Andrew Weissmann are wondering aloud if Smith's team got a tip from an informant. Allison Gill, who worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, summed it up nicely: "Keep in mind. FBI Trump holdover D’Antuono initially blocked the search of Mar a Lago, then finally relented to DoJ prosecutors. Then he wanted to alert Trump to the search. Then he agreed but not if the FBI wore their uniforms. I’m not surprised the FBI 'missed' some rooms."

     You'd think the FBI would want to do this right since they were searching Trump's home and especially considering they were searching for top secret documents that never should've been there. If you're not going to build an airtight case for potential criminal prosecution, then why execute the search warrant, in the first place?

     Yes, what Trump did in stealing classified documents and refusing to turn them back over to the government was pretty scummy and should rise to the level of treason. But Trump had help and at least part of that help came directly from the FBI.

     As Rachel Maddow says, "Watch this space."