Boy it sounds like he has some secrets to tell.
I'm sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for all this. I'm also sure that not a single Trumpturd on this board can offer it.
---
‘Trump Employee 5’ says classified docs case no ‘witch hunt’
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=%E2%80%98Trump+Employee+5%E2%80%99+says+classified+docs+case+no+%E2%80%98witch+hunt%E2%80%99+
A longtime Mar-a-Lago employee who is a central witness in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents is now speaking publicly because he believes that voters should hear the truth about his former boss and the case before the November election.
Brian Butler, who is referenced as “Trump Employee 5” in the classified documents indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith, told CNN in an exclusive interview that he doesn’t believe the criminal case against Trump is a “witch hunt,” as the former president has claimed.
Butler gave testimony to federal investigators that informed crucial portions of last year’s criminal obstruction charges against Trump and his two co-defendants, Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Trump, and Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago who had been Butler’s closest friend until recently.
Butler, who was employed at Mar-a-Lago for 20 years, has spoken repeatedly with investigators, paying for his own attorney and breaking with the orbit around Trump that he knows so well – setting him apart from his former colleagues and friends as his former boss has been named in multiple federal investigations.
Butler told CNN how he unknowingly helped Nauta deliver boxes of classified information from Mar-a-Lago to the former president’s plane in June 2022 – the same day that Trump and his attorney were meeting with the Justice Department at Mar-a-Lago about the classified documents.
That day, June 3, 2022, Butler received what he remembers as a strange request from Nauta, who wanted to know if he could borrow an Escalade from the car service Butler ran for Mar-a-Lago. Trump and his family were about to fly to New Jersey that day for the summer, and it was typically Butler and his valets who handled getting their luggage onto the plane.
But it was an unusual request from Nauta for the car, Butler says, because Nauta typically didn’t handle moving luggage and asked Butler for the car in a guarded way.
Butler says Nauta and De Oliveira loaded up the vehicle before driving it to the West Palm Beach airport. Butler arrived with his own car filled with Trump family luggage, then helped Nauta load Trump’s plane with the luggage – as well as bankers boxes of documents that were in the Escalade. Butler says he didn’t realize the bankers boxes contained anything out of the ordinary.
“I left Mar-a-Lago. I texted him, ‘Hey, I’m on my way.’ He followed me. He pulled out and got behind me. We got to the airport. I ended up loading all the luggage I had – and he had a bunch of boxes,” Butler said of Nauta.
“They were the boxes that were in the indictment, the white bankers boxes. That’s what I remember loading,” Butler added.
Three months after the FBI removed hundreds of government records from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Butler left his job as a club valet and manager, in part due to a growing restlessness to move on.
Butler says he has considered for months going public about his role in the obstruction case against Trump as he has carefully followed developments in the criminal case. Butler says he decided to sit down with CNN exclusively in West Palm Beach on Monday out of a wish to tell the truth and share what he knows to those who may doubt the facts of the case.
Butler, who has not previously been named publicly, is referenced six times in the Justice Department’s indictment as “Trump Employee 5.” The references made to Butler in the indictment capture only an inkling of what he knows and could be asked to speak about on the witness stand — all of which he says he’s already shared with prosecutors, giving them a window into scenes where other witnesses may have been close-lipped or allegedly misleading.
A lawyer for Trump declined to comment to CNN, as did a lawyer for Nauta. An attorney for De Oliveira, John Irving, said in a statement, “We look forward to hearing more about Mr. Butler’s version of events when he is under oath and subject to penalty of perjury in the courtroom where that belongs, and we decline to try this case in the media.”
The special counsel’s office spokesman also declined to comment.
Butler also was a witness in the room to several conversations that allegedly capture how Trump was positioning his closest aide Nauta, De Oliveira and others to thwart federal authorities.
De Oliveira told Butler, for instance, about Nauta traveling to Palm Beach in late June 2022, at a time when Nauta and De Oliveira were allegedly interested in deleting surveillance tapes of a storage room where the boxes had been kept at the club, according to the indictment.
Butler recalls that De Oliveira told him Nauta would be visiting. Then a day later, De Oliveira warned Butler that Nauta’s visit should be kept secret. De Oliveira told Butler that Nauta was interested in learning about how surveillance footage from the club would be saved – another oddity to Butler, he says.
He says he now looks back at his last few months at Mar-a-Lago with a clarity only the indictment of Trump could bring. The behavior of Trump and Nauta toward him –especially on days where investigators were seeking details from Trump – now make sense, like puzzle pieces that have come together, Butler says.
Butler, 41, is a natural narrator of the world of Trump in South Florida.
He has known Trump since 2002 and can recount detailed conversations with him, his family and guests at Mar-a-Lago. Butler worked alongside his closest friends at the club, first and foremost De Oliveira. The two would sing karaoke together or celebrate each other’s birthdays off property.
Because of his close-knit friendships, Butler has years of text messages and photos on his cell phone. His time as a chauffeur to countless visitors and Trump family members provided deep insight into the inner workings of Trump’s orbit.
---
