The FBI 'staged' the Mar-a-Lago photograph?
WHEN & WHERE WAS IT SAID?
When: Sep 3, 2022
Where: Campaign rally, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Original context / reporting ↗The FBI staged a photo of seized classified documents
WHAT HE SAID (WORD FOR WORD, SADLY)
He said the FBI agents "stage a photo shoot, and pretend that I had done it," calling the photo of seized documents "disinformation."
WHEN AND WHERE (THE RECEIPTS HAVE A CALENDAR)
Campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Sept. 3, 2022, for the state's Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate.
WHAT THE RECORD SHOWS (BRING SNACKS)
- A Justice Department court filing dated Aug. 30, 2022 includes the photo as Attachment F and says the documents and cover sheets were 'recovered from a container in the '45 office.'
- DOJ officials told The New York Times and The Washington Post that agents arranged the documents on the floor to photograph them as evidence.
- A person familiar with the investigation told the Post that arranging seized evidence for a photo is standard FBI practice.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Arranging evidence for a photograph is not fabricating the evidence. The documents were real.
Agents arranged seized materials for an evidentiary photograph; that did not mean the documents were fabricated.
Finding: FalseBold. Wrong, but bold.
Sources & further reading
Keep digging
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Editorial note: each article reports only details found in the linked sources. Where a source does not give a venue, date or exact wording, we say so instead of guessing. Quotations may need further editorial verification against primary recordings or transcripts.