CNN Senior Crime and Justice reporter Katelyn Polantz told anchor Dana Bash that former President Donald Trump “went ballistic” when he learned his maid had talked to the FBI via Media Ite.
On Friday, a good deal of airtime was devoted to a new CNN report from Polantz and Paula Reid on the potential witness list at the Espionage Act trial based on who has talked to Special Counsel Jack Smith as part of his investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents and what they said.
Polantz was a guest on Friday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, during which she told Bash that her sources claim there were a couple of things that really got Trump spun up — namely the maid’s cooperation and that cooperating witness Yuscil Taveras only recently resigned despite having dumped his Trump-appointed lawyer months ago:
“DANA BASH: What is your new reporting reveal about how the former president deals with the people who work for him, especially employees at Mar a Lago?
KATELYN POLANTZ: Dana, I’m sure you won’t find it as a surprise that Trump runs his club like it’s his kingdom. He’s the king and he is very unhappy whenever prosecutors, investigators encroach on that territory.
The two things that came out in this was–. The one was that he went ballistic when he found out that the maid who cleans his bedroom suite. So the person cleaning both his and Melania Trump’s private quarters, when that person was approached by investigators and that person, she is a possible witness here, according to our reporting and our sources.
He also was quite unhappy that one of the key witnesses in this case, a man who cut a cooperation deal with prosecutors, got rid of his Trump-provided attorneys and got a new lawyer.
He kept working there at Mar a Lago until just recently. And when Trump found out he was resigning recently, he was quite unhappy that this person had stayed on.
Prosecutors are very likely looking to see how Trump is responding to these people and if he’s trying to talk to them about this case.
DANA BASH: I’m sure they are! Such excellent reporting, as always. Really, really interesting. Katelyn, thank you.”
