A former Mar-a-Lago employee, Brian Butler, had no idea he was carrying classified documents in the boxes. Donald Trump has been indicted in a legal case for allegedly mishandling the papers amid his presidential campaign for the upcoming 2024 elections. In a surprising turn of events, the ex-president’s staff admits to having been involved in it, albeit unknowingly, as per Mediaite .
In an exclusive televised interview with CNN , Butler, who was referred to as ‘Employee Number 5’ in the criminal case, confessed he assisted Trump’s aide Walt Nauta in loading around 10-15 boxes onto the Trump plane at the West Palm Beach airport near his resort in June 2022—around the same time FBI asked Trump to return them. Butler identified himself as a key witness, and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins questioned, “And did you have any time, any idea at the time, that there was potentially U.S. national security secrets in those boxes?” Butler responded, “I had no clue. I mean, we were just taking them out of the Escalade and piling them up. I remember they were all stacked on top of each other and then we’re lifting them up to the pilots.”
Then, Butler was asked, “Did you ever think to yourself, why were there so many boxes at Mar-a-Lago?” To this, he responded, “You know, I, for me, I’m just thinking, “Oh, the former president, he has a lot of stuff he likes to lug around with him.” I never would’ve thought it was anything like what we see —” Collins followed up: “Classified documents.” Butler responded, “Yeah.” He further clarified that Trump’s remarks about the indictment being a ‘witch-hunt’ against him are untrue. He denied claims of the charges being politically motivated and admitted the case broke the Republican’s relationship with defendant and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira. Butler continued, “I felt like it was a total no-win situation for me. I mean, they’re asking me questions about one of my best friends. I’m being honest. But I also have a bad feeling that what I’m saying is getting him into trouble.”
Former Mar-a-Lago employee Brian Butler says the American people should hear the truth about Trump and the classified documents case before the election: “The American people have the right to know the facts, that this is not a witch hunt.” pic.twitter.com/WuPPeoX1J2
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) March 12, 2024
“Nobody should have to go through that,” Butler added. “And for [Trump] to get up there all the time and say the things he says about this being a witch hunt and everything. … He just can’t take responsibility for anything.” Butler said he moved the boxes with Nauta and De Oliveira. “They were the boxes that were in the indictment, the white banker’s boxes. That’s what I remember loading,” referring to the photos in the federal indictment filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Butler was employed at Trump’s Florida home for over two decades. However, three months after the FBI searched for intelligence documents , he left the job at Mar-a-Lago solely because he wanted to move. But when asked why he decided to speak now, Butler said he hoped by going public, “at least I can move on with my life and get over this,” referring to the past year as a ‘rollercoaster.’ “Instead of just waiting for it to just come out, I think it’s better that I get to at least say what happened than it coming out in the news, people calling me, like, crazy,” he said. Meanwhile, he also agreed that he’d willingly testify in the trial.