As social media continues to flood in to photos of the Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents Store, eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that there are even more boxes in the photos than meets the eye. originally thought.
The photos were released in a 49-page indictment unsealed on Friday, with the beleaguered Republican front-runner expecting to plead not guilty to the claims in a Miami court on Tuesday.
A Twitter user noticed that a photo showing boxes stacked in a Mar-a-Lago bathtub actually contained several other boxes concealed by a shower curtain and a chandelier.
“Everyone posted this photo of boxes of documents in the bathroom at Mar a Lago, but take a good look,” the Twitter user noted. “It’s so much worse than it first appears.”
They included three places where you could see visible boxes sticking out of the shower.
As social media continues to flood in to photos of the Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents Store, eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that there are even more boxes in the photos than meets the eye. originally thought
Twitter was filled with jokes reacting to the revelations.
“Who among us hasn’t stored critical papers in our shower stalls, and of course the shower has a crystal chandelier!” cracked Adele Abrams.
Another wrote: ‘It’s like an episode of Storage Wars with Trump selling the blind contents of the bathroom to the highest bidder.’
“These are very secure behind the curtain,” another chimed in.
“Plumbing tip, if something is leaking in the bathroom, it shouldn’t be a classified document,” another user joked.
Trump on Friday accused the FBI of staged photographs showing the boxes of classified documents illegally stored at his Florida estate.
Trump said the photos were suspicious, writing on Truth Social: “Strange! Everything in the boxes was so neat, tidy and clean.
“Did the FBI knock over the only box the way they ‘staged’ the papers on the ground in the Mar-a-Lago raid, only to apologize after they got caught?”
Trump makes his first public appearances this weekend at a rally in North Carolina
The 76-year-old said on Thursday he was told he was charged with espionage – the first time in US history that a former president has faced federal charges.
Trump faces four separate charges, each of which could carry a potential prison sentence of 20 years: conspiracy to obstruct justice; withhold a document or file; concealment by corruption of a document or file; and the concealment of a document in a federal investigation.
One count is punishable by 10 years in prison: willful withholding of national defense information.
And the last two counts have a maximum of five years each: scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. Trump’s indictment remains sealed, but his decision to make it public means the feds could unseal it as early as Friday, ahead of next Tuesday’s court appearance in Miami.
The news sparked outrage from the Republican Party, with even 2024 rival Ron DeSantis declaring that “the militarization of federal law enforcement poses a deadly threat to a free society.” DeSantis has not said whether he would forgive his rival if Trump is convicted, despite calls for the governor of Florida to pledge to do so.
Trump himself – who was in Bedminster, New Jersey when news of the accusation broke – condemned the indictment in a clip that the New York Times said was pre-recorded, saying he acted as political persecution, and said, “I am innocent”.
Supporters of Donald Trump at Columbus Airport in Columbus, Georgia on Saturday
Extraordinary new photos (above) revealed in the damning dossier show how Trump valet Walt Nauta entered a storage room and found intelligence files on allies including the UK and Australia, knocked down on the floor
In one photo, the boxes are stacked in front of a shower curtain and next to a sink in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom. Some of Trump’s aides simply called the files “his papers.”
He will appear in court in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m., where the charges will be brought against him. Trump denies all the allegations he faces.
Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the investigation, did not comment.
He was indicted in Manhattan in April for silently paying money to porn star Stormy Daniels – those state charges were also historic.
But the federal classified information charges are significantly more serious, and carry heavy prison sentences.
Prosecutors have been investigating the transfer of presidential records to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida since last year.
The investigation made headlines in August when the FBI raided Trump’s Florida home, recovering 11,000 documents, around 100 of which were marked as classified.
For his part, Trump has repeatedly insisted he did nothing wrong and was the victim of a federal witch hunt.
At times, the controversy has even bolstered his standing in the polls and allowed him to raise money from supporters who see a “deep state” plot to knock him out of the 2024 race.
“The corrupt Biden administration informed my lawyers that I have been charged, apparently for the box hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 boxes at the University of Delaware, additional boxes in Chinatown, DC, with even more of boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn across the floor of his garage where he parks his Corvette, and which is ‘secured’ only by a paper-thin garage door that is open most of the time’ ‘, Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday night.
“I was summoned to the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m. I would never have thought possible that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country, and who currently leads , by far, every candidate, both Democratic and Republican, in the polls for the 2024 presidential election. I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!’
Later Thursday night, he released a video.
“Very sadly, we are a nation in decline and yet they are going after a very popular president,” Trump said.
“I am an innocent man, I have done nothing wrong,” he continued, promising to “fight this.”
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Trump also said he would “of course” plead not guilty.
Security is already tightened around the Miami courthouse ahead of his appearance before a judge, scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday.
The investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents is overseen by special counsel, Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November.