Former White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said "somebody very close" to Donald Trump tipped off the FBI before the bureau's raid at Mar-a-Lago.
Mulvaney appeared on CNN Thursday, three days after the FBI raided Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. Multiple reports said the raid was related to the handling of presidential records, including classified documents, after leaving office.
Rolling Stone reported that Trump asked associates if they think his phones were bugged by the feds. Newsweek, citing government sources, said the raid was the result of a "confidential human source."
Mulvaney was asked who "in Trump’s orbit" would have known the location of the since-confiscated documents.
"I didn't even know there was a safe at Mar-a-Lago, and I was the chief of staff for 15 months," Mulvaney told CNN. "This would be someone who was handling things on day to day, who knew where documents were, so it would be somebody very close to the president.
"My guess is there is probably six or eight people who had that kind of information. I don't know the people on the inside circle these days, so I can't give any names of folks who come to mind, but your instinct, I think, is a good one.
"If you know where the safe is and you know the documents are in 10 boxes in the basement, you're pretty close to the president."
Mulvaney, a former congressman from South Carolina, also called on the FBI to explain what evidence they had to suggest Trump's documents were at "imminent risk" of being concealed or destroyed.
Mulvaney also referenced a CNN legal analyst who said the raid was an overreach if it's "just about documents."
"If you're Republican, the reason you're asking, acting the way that you are the last 48 hours, is that you really do feel like you're not getting fair treatment from your own government, and that's a very dangerous place to be," Mulvaney said on CNN.
Newsweek reported that the raid at Mar-a-Lago was timed deliberately to occur when the former president was not there. He's spending the summer in New Jersey.
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