Dozens Of Mar-a-Lago’s Staff Slapped With Subpoenas

Mar-a-Lago’s staff is getting served. 

According to a report from CNN, more than two dozen employees at Trump’s Palm Beach estate have been called to testify before a grand jury investigating the former president’s potential mishandling of classified documents following his exit from the White House. 

Sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN that those subpoenaed included servers and housekeeping staff—anyone who may have seen or heard of the materials stored at the residence. 

The grand jury has also set its sights on members of Trump’s inner circle who live and work out of Florida, including lawyers and aides that remained on the president’s payroll following his departure from D.C. Margo Martin, a communications aide to Trump, has reportedly already appeared before investigators. 

According to CNN, many of the staffers summoned to testify before the grand jury are having their representation and legal bills covered by Trump-affiliated entities. 

Federal investigators recovered hundreds of classified materials, including documents marked as “top secret” from Mar-a-Lago in a series of handovers and an FBI raid of the estate in August last year. Throughout the process, lawyers for the former president turned over incomplete caches of documents and moved the files from their original storage location despite a request from investigators that their condition be preserved. 

Trump has since engaged in a protracted legal battle to prevent investigators from reviewing the actual contents of the classified files. In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former Department of Justice Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith to serve as special counsel in the investigation of the documents. Smith is tasked with establishing whether the Justice Department has the standing to bring criminal charges against Trump and his associates. One potential target is Evan Corcoran, a lawyer for the president who investigators may “very likely” bring charges against. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, advisors to Trump have urged him to dump Corcoran to avoid further entanglement with prosecutors.  

While the Mar-a-Lago probe remains a looming issue to Trump, the former president is facing much nearer threats. Grand juries in both Manhattan and Georgia have indicated that they are likely to bring an indictment against Trump—the former in relation to his 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, and the latter for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. 

While Palm Beach may be Trump’s sunny escape from the turmoil of federal prosecution, it’s become abundantly obvious that serving the president is the fastest way to end up getting served.